YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
WILLIAM C. EGLESTON FUND

Sir John Everett Millais
His Art and Influence

Uniform with the Present Volume
Sixth Edition, with 2 Photogravures and
ioo other Illustrations
"]s. 6d. net
Sir EDWARD BURNE-JONES
A RECORD AND REVIEW

Malcolm Bell

n CSfWtwr- ¦/¦•/- .J't'/ifSfu,

Sir John Everett Millais
His Art and Influence
By A. L. Baldry
Author of ' ' Albert Moore : His Life and Works,"
Etc.

LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1899

First published September 1899
Reprinted October i8gg

PREFACE
THERE is no intention to give in these pages anything
approaching a detailed personal history of Sir John
Millais, or to treat at any length the facts of his private
life. Such matters are better left to the biographers who
deal with the man and desire to draw a portrait of him
as he lived. What is offered here is an appreciation of
his influence upon the art of his time, an estimate of the
value of his intervention, as an artist, in the aesthetic
movements that marked the years over which his career
extended. Therefore only those personal details have
been included which are important because they have
some bearing upon his professional progress, or have
helped to confirm him in a preference for a particular
line of action.
In the case of Sir John Millais this separation of the
artist from the man is the easier, because, admirable and
sincere though he was in his devotion to his profession,
he did not make it his sole interest ; but, outside his
studio, threw himself into the occupations and amuse
ments that are dear to every man of robust vitality, and
are expressive of physical inclinations rather than in
tellectual gifts. Our concern is with him as a worker,
as one of the greatest painters that the British School
has known ; and it is only incidentally necessary to refer
to his domestic affairs when they happen to explain
significantly how far his private pursuits aided in keep
ing up the splendid virility of his art. His pictures and
drawings are the essential facts that have called for
consideration, because by them his place in history is

vi PREFACE
fixed; and as a commentary on them this book must
be read.
Fortunately it has been possible, by the courtesy of
the owners of the copyrights of his pictures, to summarise
pictorially the many phases of his practice at the various
stages of his working life, and to hint, as far as may be
done with reproductions in black-and-white, at the great
ness of his artistic ability. All sides of his art are
illustrated, and the evidence given of his versatility is
comprehensive and intelligible.
Sincere acknowledgment of very valuable assistance
in the preparation of the letterpress is due to Mr M. H.
Spielmann, who has also allowed the use of his exhaustive
list of the artist's pictures, which was compiled originally
for his book, " Millais and his Works " ; and to Mr George
Allen, by whose permission appear certain quotations
from the writings of Mr Ruskin which have a particular
reference to the performance of Sir John Millais.

CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface  v
List of Illustrations  ix
Chapter I. Introductory  i
II. Biographical  21
III. Year by Year — Early Works . . 37
IV. Year by Year — Later Works . . 51
V. Figure Painting, including Portraits . 62
VI. Landscape Art  76
VII. Black and White Work .... 86
VIII. Comments and Criticisms ... 96
Chronological List of the Artist's Paintings . 113
Index  119

TITLE VIGNETTE TO
WORDSWORTH'S POEMS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A Souvenir of Velasquez . . . Frontispiece
From the painting in the Diploma Gallery, Burlington House
Title Vignette to Wordsworth's Poems . . viii
Bookplate of Mr Christopher Sykes . . xvi
Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A., by Frank Holl . i
From the painting in the Diploma Gallery, Burlington House
The Battle of Stirling .... 4
From a pencil drawing in the possession of Lady Dilke
Love ....... 8
From a drawing in the South Kensington Museum
Christ in the House of his Parents . . 14
By permission of Messrs M1 Queen Brothers
Autumn Leaves . . . . . .16
By permission of the Corporation of Manchester
The Order of Release . . . .18
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
The North-West Passage . . '. .20
By permission of the proprietors of the Illustrated London
News
Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru . . .22
From the painting in the South Kensington Museum
The Huguenot . . . . • .24
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
The Return of the Dove to the Ark . . 26
From the painting in the University Galleries, Oxford
Apple Blossoms ...... 28

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Rosalind and Celia ....
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
Joan of Arc .....
By permission of Sir Cuthbert Quilter, Bart., M.P.
J. C. Hook, R.A. ....
By permission of J. C. Hook, Esq., R.A.
The Princes in the Tower
By permission of the Fine Art Society
A Forerunner .....
By permission of Sir C. Tennant
Sir John E. Millais, Bart. By himself
From the painting in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Lorenzo and Isabella ....
By permission of the Corporation of Liverpool
The Proscribed Royalist
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
The Black Brunswicker
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
The Bridesmaid .....
From the painting in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Ophelia (Photogravure Plate)
From the painting in the National Gallery of British Art.
A Highland Lassie ....
By permission of H. Willett, Esq.
The Parable of the Lost Piece of Money .
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
Sir Isumbras at the Ford
My First Sermon ....
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

XI

My Second Sermon ....
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
The Minuet .....
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
Asleep ......
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
Just Awake .....
By permission of Messrs H. Graves and Co.
The Martyr of the Solway .
By permission of the Corporation of Liverpool
The Knight Errant ....
From the painting in the National Gallery of British Art
The Bride .....
Mrs Bischoffsheim ....
By permission of H. L. Bischoffsheim, Esq.
A Yeoman of the Guard
From the painting in the National Gallery
Thomas Carlyle ....
From the painting in the National Portrait Gallery
Princess Elizabeth in Prison at St James's
By permission of the Fine Art Society
Mrs Perugini .....
By permission of C. E. Perugini, Esq.
St Stephen .....
From the painting in the National Gallery of British Art
A Disciple .....
From the painting in the National Gallery of British Art
Caller Herrin' .....
By permission of the Fine Art Society
The Captive .....
By permission of the Fine Art Society

Xll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Dropped from the Nest
By permission of the Fine Art Society
A Waif ......
By permission of Messrs Dowdeswell
The Vale of Rest ....
From the painting in the National Gallery of British Art
Mercy! St Bartholomew's Day
From the painting in the National Gallery of British Art
The Escape of a Heretic.
By permission of Sir W. H. Houldsworth, Bart., M.P.
Victory, O Lord ! . . . .
By permission of the Corporation of Manchester
The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone
From the painting at Christchurch, Oxford
The Right Hon. The Earl of Beaconsfield
By permission of the Honourable W. F. D. Smith, M.P.
The Most Hon. The Marquess of Salisbury, K.G.
By permission of the Honourable W. F. D. Smith, M.P.
John Hare, Esq. ....
By permission of John Hare, Esq.
Sir Henry Irving ....
By permission of Sir Henry Irving
Mrs Jopling .....
By permission of Mrs Jopling-Rowe
Chill October . - .
By permission of Lord Armstrong
The Blind Girl ....
By permission of the Corporation of Birmingham
The Old Garden
By permission of Mr T. Maclean

64646666
68 68 7070 72 7272 74 76
78
80

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Xlll

PAGE

84

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind . . 82
By permission of Major Joicey
A Flood . . . .
By permission of Mr Arthur Lucas
The Sisters ••.... 86
From Tennyson's Poems, by permission of Messrs Macmillan
and Co.
Mariana ....... 86
From Tennyson's Poems, by permission of Messrs Macmillan
and Co.
Locksley Hall ...... 88
From Tennyson's Poems, by permission of Messrs Macmillan
and Co.
Death of the Old Year . . . .88
From Tennyson's Poems, by permission of Messrs Macmillan
and Co.
St Agnes' Eve ...... 90
From Tennyson's Poems, by permission of Messrs Macmillan
and Co.
Edward Gray and Emma Moreland . . .90
From Tennyson's Poems, by permission of Messrs Macmillan
and Co.
The Hidden Treasure . . . . .92
From The Parables, by permission of Messrs Virtue and Co.
The Wicked Husbandman . . . .92
From The Parables, by permission of Messrs Virtue and Co.
The Tares . * . .94
From The Parables, by permission of Messrs Virtue and Co.
The Unmerciful Servant . . . .94
From The Parables, by permission of Messrs Virtue and Co.
Lady Mason after her Confession . . .96
From Ciley Farm, by permission of Messrs Chapman and Hall

xiv LIST- OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Orley Farm ....•• 96
From Orley Farm, by permission of Messrs Chapman and Hall
The Crawley Family . . . • .98
From Framley Parsonage, by permission of Messrs Smith,
Elder and Co.
The Bishop and the Knight . . . .98
From the Cornhill Magazine, by permission of Messrs Smith,
Elder and Co.
Last Words ...... 100
From the Cornhill Magazine, by permission of Messrs Smith,
Elder and Co.

Irene

From the Cornhill Magazine, by permission of Messrs Smith,
Elder and Co.
The Board ...... 102
From the Cornhill Magazine, by permission of Messrs Smith,
Elder and Co.
"Please, Ma'am, can we have the Peas to shell" 102
From the Cornhill Magazine, by permission of Messrs Smith,
Elder and Co.
Farmer Chell's Kitchen .... 104
From Once a Week, by permission of Messrs Bradbury,
Agnew and Co.
On the Water ...... 104
From Once a Week, by permission of Messrs Bradbury,
Agnew and Co.
The Monk ...... 106
From Once a Week, by permission of Messrs Bradbury
Agnew and Co.
Margaret Wilson, the Scottish Martyr . . 106
From Once a. Week, by permission of Messrs Bradbury
Agnew and Co.
Anna and her Lover . . . . .108
From Once a Week, by permission of Messrs Bradbury,
Agnew and Co.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv

PAGE

The Plague of Elliant . . . .108
From Once a Week, by permission of Messrs Bradbury,
Agnew and Co.
The Border Widow . . . . .110
From Home Affections, by permission of Messrs G. Routledge
and Sons
She led the Way . . . . .110
From The Hampdens, by permission of Messrs G. Routledge
and Sons
There is nae Luck about the House . . 112
From Home Affections, by permission of Messrs G. Routledge
and Sons

BOOKPLATE DESIGNED FOR
CHRISTOPHER SYKES

From a Picture by
Frank Holt

SIR J. E. MILLAIS, BART., P.R.A.

JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
'"THE record of the British School of painting during the
present century has been especially remarkable for its
variety of incident. A curious series of episodes has very
definitely affected the character of our national art practice,
and has powerfully influenced the whole course of artistic
progress. Events of the utmost moment have been
numerous enough to make this period of our art history
peculiarly significant as a time of active development, and
to mark emphatically fhat growth of popular interest in
aesthetic questions which is now bearing ample fruit. In
all sorts of ways circumstances have combined to produce
effects of extreme value, not only to art workers, but to
every thinker as well, who wishes to arrive at a correct
estimate of the manner in which taste controls the work
ings of our social economy.
Perhaps the most instructive feature of this century of
development has been its extraordinary freedom from any
thing like ordered regularity. The aesthetic creed which
is to-day so devoutly and so generally accepted has been
formulated not on any careful and exact system, but rather
as a result of occurrences apparently accidental. It has
grown by slow stages and with many fluctuations, alter
nating between almost feverish impulse and absolute
stagnation. Every now and then some happy chance has
stimulated sudden movement, and caused a great advance;
and then there has succeeded an equally marked retro-
A

2 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
gression, in which positions that appeared to be securely
occupied were abandoned with unaccountable haste, and
principles seemingly immutable were given up without
even a momentary hesitation. A vigorous conflict of
opinion has been in progress for the greater part of the
time, and each phase of thought has in turn been accepted
as an infallible revelation, calculated to settle finally and
for ever all the points at issue.
What has at last come out of this prolonged strife is
a reasonably definite agreement on main questions, a
healthy acknowledgment of the right of all sides to a
hearing, if only there is sincerity in what they have to
say. The many-sidedness of art is admitted willingly
enough ; and a broad toleration of genuine effort en
courages workers of the better sort to strive for the
expression of their true convictions, secure in the belief
that they will not be hastily misjudged. There is no
longer any need for them to subject themselves to
traditions which originated, not in an intelligent under
standing of the facts upon which all sound aestheticism
is based, but rather in a false idea of being in the fashion ;
they can choose their own manner of stating what they
believe, and can use each his particular individuality to
give variety and active vitality to their methods of
practice. It is quite worth while making some examination of the
sequence of the events which have led to this emancipation.
There is something to be learned by studying the apparent
incoherences of thought and the obvious inconsistencies of
performance characteristic of what has been the busiest
period of our art history. When the century began, the
influence of a group of great masters was still powerful to
control the effort of their successors. Reynolds, Gains
borough, and Romney, had died only a few years before,
but Laurence, Hoppner, Raeburn, Morland, and some
other painters of scarcely less capacity, were carrying on
the teaching of these chiefs of the British School ; and

INTRODUCTORY 3
Turner was making the first manifestations of that extra
ordinary genius which in his maturer years was destined
to put beyond question his right to a place among the
greatest artists of the world. During the first decade,
Constable, De Wint, Wilkie, David Cox, Crome, and Etty,
came into the arena, to prove that the vitality of our
native art was still unimpaired, and that splenrlid achieve
ment was possible to the workers who were able to
appreciate the intentions of their predecessors.
But as these men dropped one by one out of the ranks,
they left vacant places which no one was competent to fill,
and before the middle of the century was reached a painful
change had come about in the condition of affairs. The
purity and vigour of the aesthetic belief by which the
masters had been guided had given way to a lamentable
love of trivialities, to a worship of an artificial style, and to
a preference for pedantic methods. Weak conventions,
based upon absolute misconceptions, perverted the whole
range of artistic production, and parodied the principles
which had proved before supremely fitted to encourage
nobility of intention and strength of practice. The smooth
and careful commonplaces of Mulready, the feeble pretti-
nesses of Augustus Egg, the bombast of P. F. Poole, the
theatrical exaggeration of C R. Leslie, the pretentious
affectation of Maclise, and the skilful but uninspired
mechanism of Landseer, misled the public taste, and
warped even the professional judgment. An extra
ordinary degeneration set in, a helpless surrender of all
the conquests by which our school had been so recently
enriched. Strange gods were worshipped, a curious faith
in false creeds became the fashion, and fanaticism without
logic or reason was substituted for intelligent analysis
and accurate judgment.
The causes of this degeneration must be sought in some
thing beyond the mere incapacity of the workers them
selves at this particular period. It cannot be accounted
for simply by the failure of a whole group of men to reach

4 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
the standard of executive perfection to which their pre
decessors had easily attained ; nor can it be put down only
to a freak of nature who had endowed the artists of one
century less generously than those who had lived in the
one immediately preceding. What had really happened
was a change of thought, a complete upset of the convic
tions by which the art of this country had hitherto been
controlled. Reynolds, Gainsborough, and their contem
poraries and immediate followers, were close students of
reality, and, with all their love of style, never sacrificed
truth to effective artifice. They had a sound instinct for
splendour of technical method, and understood perfectly
what devices of execution would give to their work an
impressive dignity, and a persuasive refinement. Their
pictures combined rich harmony of colour relation, strength
of design, and certainty of statement, to an exceptional
degree ; but were always based securely upon nature and
owed to earnest regard for her direction their superlative
quality of easy mastery. Sincerity and absence of affecta
tion made them valuable as object-lessons in executive
management, and surrounded them with that atmosphere
of robust vitality which is rightly accepted as the hall
mark of excellence.
Yet the value of these examples of perfectly controlled
aestheticism was so little appreciated by the men who
were responsible for the art production of the middle years
of the century that the introduction of a debased and
senseless form of practice became possible. The artists
who might have carried on the. noblest traditions of our
school, and might, even with their limitations of technical
skill, have done credit to themselves and their surroundings,
preferred to substitute feeble and inanimate theories for
the honest beliefs which were presented for their adoption.
They blinded themselves with fallacies about the merits of
a style founded not upon exact observation of nature but
upon abstractions that they were pleased to consider

¦ "

mnmNW^ y

THE BATTLE OF STIRLING

INTRODUCTORY 5
intellectual and imaginative. It was, they thought, a sign
of weakness to study the facts of the world about them or
to show that they had either the capacity or the inclination
to deal with realities. Their duty was to trust their own
inspirations, and to make up by readiness of invention for
their deficiency of visual training. The farther they got
away from the taint of naturalism the better they were
pleased, for the more completely did they believe that they
were fulfilling their mission.
With such a view of their responsibilities it was not
surprising that year by year they should have sunk
deeper into the slough of convention. They had no
guide but their own erring fancy, no control but that of
fashion, and were merely drifting helplessly in whatever
direction the delusions of the moment might lead them.
Naturally their art degenerated and dwindled, until it
was on the verge of extinction. A little honesty of
purpose might have saved it ; a touch of sturdy self-
respect might have awakened it to a sense of its futile
incompetence ; but instead it preferred to continue in its
foolish courses, glorying in its disabilities, and unconscious,
or careless, of the fate that was awaiting it in the near
future. To put matters once again on a proper footing very
drastic measures were necessary. There was nothing to
be gained by compromises, or by dealing gently with the
misconceptions which were hurrying the British school to
extinction. The only possible cure for the ills with which
it was at this time afflicted was a radical change of policy
forcibly imposed upon the artists themselves, and upon the
people whom they were misleading. Clearly the decline of
professional taste had gone so far that no remedies which
affected details merely could be expected to prove
beneficial. Only an absolute abandonment of the false
principles which were responsible for the degeneration,
and a sustained effort to begin again with due humility

6 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
and real sincerity, could ensure anything like a hopeful
prospect for the future. A new direction had to be found
for aesthetic endeavour, and a different basis upon which
to build up a scheme of practice. The delusions about
intellectual art, the blind worship of unmeaning style
and empty abstractions, all the fallacious absurdities which
had encouraged the descent from the sublime to the
ridiculous that had been in progress, had to be destroyed
without mercy. Vehement and unhesitating opposition
to the prevailing fashion was all that could be depended
upon to effectually alter the course of affairs, and to
awaken the art world sufficiently to a sense of its
position to give a proper trial to the more wholesome
methods which were needed to replace those that were
plainly discredited and obsolete.
What had to come was a return to the studious natural
ism that was as surely the attribute of the work of the
eighteenth-century British masters as it has been the
supreme merit of the great canvases by masters of other
schools. As anything like recantation was not to be
expected on the part of the men who in the wisdom
of their own conceit had been setting up their weak
opinions against the commanding authority of the leaders
of the profession, there was little hope that a belated con
version would make them active in any attempt at reform.
The change had to be brought about without their help,
and it involved ousting them from a position to which
they were not entitled. Happily the means of doing
this proved at the critical moment to be available, means
most effective, and exactly calculated to produce results
that were not only beneficial, but also permanent.
Opportunely enough, when matters were at their worst,
and our art was seemingly at its lowest ebb, a group
of young artists suddenly raised the standard of revolt
against the inefficiency of their elders, and asserted with
all the courage of youth their disbelief in the creed that

INTRODUCTORY 7
they found themselves called upon to accept. They came
forward to challenge the advocates of the existing state
of art politics and to wage war against what they felt
to be pernicious and unnatural doctrines. The suddenness
of the onslaught made it necessarily all the more dramatic.
There was a degree of unexpectedness about this declara
tion of a new opinion that drew upon it more immediate
attention than it might otherwise have gained, and gave it
a surprising power to excite the keenest possible interest.
Of course, the interest took the form of bitter opposition
in a great many cases, and the young reformers found
themselves committed to a very strenuous conflict, but
they had the resolution to persevere, and to meet attack
with redoubled assertion.
It was not long before allies began to gather round
them. Their enthusiasm proved to be contagious, and
their tenacity excited first wonder and then respect.
People seemed to realise that perhaps there was something
worth considering in a movement which was supported
with so much confidence, and that ideas advanced with
such evident conviction were not to be lightly dismissed
as the fancies of eccentric innovators. A few of the
better type of thinkers on art subjects joined themselves
to the rebels, and with a sincere acknowledgment of
the justice of their cause, gave them effective and practical
encouragement as well as intelligent advocacy. Slowly,
but surely, a consciousness of the inadequacy of the
existing conventions spread in many directions, and step
by step a healthier and saner phase of belief won its way
to general acceptance. Doubts as to the infallibility
of the professors of theories that were proclaimed to be
false and mistaken increased, until the whole array of
delusions that had been gathered together was scattered
before the irresistible advance of the forces of enlightened
common-sense. That the only inspiration by which the
artist can profit must come from nature, and that the

8 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
purer this inspiration is kept the better the results it will
give, was in a little while frankly recognised; and with
this recognition came not only a complete reform of:
professional practice, but also a marked improvement in
the popular capacity to sympathise with artistic effort.
At first the party of progress, as was to be expected-
from the nature of the task they had undertaken, was not
prepared to abate one atom of their assertion of the
principles to which they had pinned their faith. They.
had an obstinate fanaticism to upset, and to do this they
had to profess a stronger obstinacy and a fanaticism more
uncompromising. Their view was definite to the verge of
brutality, and was stated with a directness that left no
opening for quibbles about their meaning. Naturalism
was the corner-stone of their creed, so they would tolerate
nothing in art which did not reproduce nature with
scrupulous fidelity and minute exactness. Every little
detail, every small accessory, must be carefully and
lovingly studied from actual objects, and no part of the
subject selected might be slurred over or disregarded as
a trivial or unimportant thing. A perfect whole could
only be built up by absolute perfection in every one of
its components, for nature's severe completeness was held
to be simply a result of her infinite complexity.
So, to justify their attack upon the men who rejected
nature as something common and unclean, an associate unfit
for the companionship of imaginative and inventive minds, .
these young artists put themselves with a kind of child- [
like trust utterly and entirely into her hands, and paraded |
their dependence upon her for the world to see. Had ..
they been less convinced, or less sure of the position they
had taken up, their influence would scarcely have been
strong enough to over-ride an established fashion. Their
only hope lay in so defining the contrast between what
they preached and practised, and what was advocated
by the rest of the profession, that there could be no doubt

LOVE

INTRODUCTORY 9
about the reality of their belief. They had determined
on a protest, and, with sound judgment, they took care
that they did not weaken its effect by any failure to make
their essential points with absolute clearness.
But when once the principle for which they were
fighting had gained acceptance, and the need for their
intervention was gratefully recognised, they did not
hesitate to modify the extreme rigour of their manner.
They and their followers — for it was not long before other
young artists began to join them — found other ways of
interpreting nature without toiling to reproduce all her
infinite variety in each closely detailed and elaborately
realised picture. They proved that exquisite accuracy
was possible with less technical restraint, and less labour
to be simply imitative. The larger facts that she presents
to the earnest student, could be used pictorially with just
as much truth, and just as much honesty, as the little
things which call for patience rather than largeness of
vision ; and a less deliberate method of execution could
be made to express quite as many meanings as the precise
and careful brushwork which records every vein on a leaf
or every feather in a bird's wing.
As the purely militant side of the movement ceased to
call for emphasis, its wider artistic possibilities came more
clearly to the front ; and, though the craving for naturalism
has remained ever since as tkte source of all that is best
in the modern art production, the chances open to the
workers who have built their practice upon the ground
won for them in the middle of the century are still
increasing year by year.
In one sense, the astonishing revival of aesthetic in
telligence which has made itself evident during recent
times is accidental, in that it is to be ascribed simply
to the fortunate appearance, at the right moment, of cer
tain men with sufficient strength of character to stem
a seemingly irresistible tide of degeneration. But in

10 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
another, it is the direct outcome of efforts to educate
public taste, and to foster a truer understanding of artistic
questions. When the battle of the new school against
the old was won, there was nothing to check almost
unlimited development, for there was no longer any
barrier of narrow and irrational conventions blocking the
way to better things. A wider scope brought a higher
type of achievement and a sounder appreciation of the
relative importance of those devices by which the inten
tions of the artist can be made credible. As the profes
sional and public point of view expanded, the power to
distinguish between good traditions and bad grew more
efficient, and the inclination to produce and encourage
work of permanent value gained a greater hold.
Sincerity, and an honest desire to profit by the teaching
of nature, have come at last to be recognised as the
essentials for success in art ; and if the workers can prove
satisfactorily that from first to last they are inspired by real
devotion to these principles, they have no reason to fear
that their individuality will not be respected, or that their
personal interpretation of the facts by which they are
impressed will be denied consideration. Liberty of thought,
and, if they satisfy the one fundamental condition, complete
freedom of action, are gladly allowed to them ; but any
hint of a return to the worship of formal preconceptions,
or any show of liking for trivial affectations, would not be
tolerated. The condition of affairs at the end of the
century repeats, only on a larger scale, that which existed
at the beginning; and the fallacies that have intervened
between these two epochs of masterly activity have
happily ceased to be anything but an unpleasant memory.
Healthy vitality has taken the place of morbid decrepi
tude ; and in its restored and robust strength, our native
school is capable once again of holding its own against
any competitors it may chance to meet.
Concerning the men themselves, who were chiefly re-

INTRODUCTORY u
sponsible for this awakening of the better instincts of the
art community, there is something to be said. They
stand out as conspicuous figures in our history, prominent
as much on account of their rare gifts and capacities, as
by reason of their courage and perseverance in asserting
the principles to which they had pinned their faith. If
they had not been endowed with more than ordinary
qualifications for their work in life, they could scarcely
have made their propagandism so effective ; while without
the most assured confidence in the justice of their cause
they could not have kept their enthusiasm alive through
the long struggle that they had to face before they could
feel themselves certain of victory. But, fortunately, they
summarised between them all that was necessary to arrest
and retain the attention of everyone who had any real
receptivity and any inclination to examine the inner
meaning of artistic practice. As a group they combined
peculiar accuracy of vision, infinite fertility of imagina
tion, true originality of method and manner, and a sturdy
self-reliance and tenacity that could be depended upon
in any emergency. They were bound together by a
strong tie of sympathy, by a perfect understanding of
their mutual aims, and by a common instinct to reject
everything that seemed to them to be antagonistic to
the purity of art.
That they influenced one another at first can scarcely
be doubted ; it was natural that their association for a
particular end, and their isolation from the rest of the
painting fraternity, should have brought them into a
somewhat close agreement on details of procedure. But
this influence by no means extended into a control of
their personal views, and plainly it did not swamp their
distinctive individualities. Indeed, as a demonstration of
the wide applicability of a consistent creed, the variety
of their work had a very definite persuasiveness, for it
was well adapted to convince the sincere student that a

12 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
respect for sound principles did not imply any sacrifice
of personal liberty, or any surrender of the right to
independent thought.
The chief figures in the group, the leaders round whom,
as time went on, gathered a host of followers, were Ford
Madox Brown, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and
John Everett Millais ; and certainly it would be hard to
find a quartette offering fuller opportunity for interesting
comparisons. Each member of it is to be credited with
the possession of some special qualities that distinguished
him from the others. Ford Madox Brown, for instance,
was a man of infinite industry, a curiously earnest thinker,
whose respect for fact led him to minutely realise the most
intimate details of the life he selected to illustrate, and a
lover of quaint symbolism with an extremely acute sense
of the dramatic value of the little touches by which he
filled up his pictorial narratives. Rossetti was steeped in
poetic fancy, an exponent of everything recondite and
fanciful, and the slave of an imagination which knew no
limitations ; and was subject to none of the laws of logic.
He lacked nothing of sincerity in his worship of nature ;
but she was to him rather the source of suggestions that
he enjoyed adapting than an absolute model whom he
wished to represent with imitative exactness. Holman
Hunt was, and is, a painter with a well-defined religious
tendency that has not only governed his choice of subject,
but has also given to his art a peculiar earnestness and
devout intention. No influence has at any period of his
life been able to turn him from the direction he chose in his
youth, and he paints now, as he did then, with unquestion
ing conviction.
It is possible that if the success of the campaign against
the old fallacies had depended solely upon the exertions
and example of these three artists, it might have been
far less immediate and convincing. Untiring industry,
endless imagination, and the most devout conscience would

INTRODUCTORY 13
have had, beyond doubt, a real power of appeal to certain
classes of thinkers ; and there would have been many
people ready and willing to attach themselves to men
who showed the highest development of these particular
attributes ; but what would have resulted would have been
rather the forming of detached sects, each acknowledging
the authority of a single head, than the stimulating into
permanent activity of a great movement susceptible of
unlimited expansion, and based upon immutable principles.
What was needed to unite these diverse individualities,
and to bring into existence a combination of forces so
thorough and coherent that it would solidly sway the
whole mass of public opinion, was the co-operation of a
robust fighter, able to dominate by his personal authority
all the rest of his associates, and with an endowment of
qualities varied and brilliant enough to gain the popular
attention as a matter of course. Such an one was for
tunately available in the person of John Everett Millais ;
and to him may fairly be given the chief credit for the
final triumph of the cause which more than anyone else
he strove to keep alive.
Indeed, it is not too much to say that the awakening of
British art, of which we are enjoying the fruits to-day,
owes to him the greater part of its completeness. That he
was admirably supported by the men who were one with
him in aesthetic intention is not to be denied ; and that
he would have been unable alone, and without active
sympathisers as tenacious as himself, to convert the whole
community to saner beliefs is, if the limitations of human
energy are considered, more than likely. But if he had
not been in the front of the battle the victory would have
been a hollow one, and its effects would have been only
partial. He was the one commanding figure who could
engage the attention of the widest circle of art-lovers, and
by the attractiveness of his personality put himself on
good terms even with his opponents. Nothing was too

14 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
difficult for him to attack, no obstacle seemed to him
insurmountable, and there was no test of his courage that
he was unwilling to undergo. Through everything he
kept up the same determined spirit, undaunted by opposi
tion and unspoiled by success, carrying with him the men
whose natures were less adapted for the active assertion of
a logical artistic policy, and, finally, by the weight of his
own cheerful belief in the significance of his mission,
conquering all the forces of indifference and spiteful self-
interest which had been arrayed against him by the
supporters of the old order of things.
To understand the extent of his influence, it is neces
sary to analyse his personality, and to examine those
details of his character which had the chief share in
shaping his destiny. His nature was not a complex one,
and was free from the curious contradictions which often
defy explanation. No want of agreement between the
habits of his daily existence and the manner of his art
made him incomprehensible, or suggested any doubt of
his sincerity. On the contrary, the direct and straight
forward honesty, the sturdy independence, and the mascu-'
line vigour, which were the guiding principles of his life,
were also the causes by which the particular trend of his
aesthetic convictions was determined. He put his real
self into his art, and its manly simplicity was the result
of his habitual unwillingness to confuse himself with side
issues, or to stray into speculations which, for all their
fascination, gave no plain promise of success. As a
matter of fact, his imagination was not of the type that
feeds on abstractions, and he had not the sort of mind
which enjoys playing with dreams and fancies rather
than facts.
The redundancy of thought which shows in everything
that Rossetti produced, and marks him as an inventive
genius with an almost uncontrollable craving for imagery
and symbolical suggestion, can hardly be said to have

CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF HIS PARENTS

INTRODUCTORY 15
been ever a possibility in the case of Millais. He had
no instinct for contemplative habits, and no inclination
to yield to that custom of introspection by which morbid
preferences are only too apt to be encouraged. Yet he
had poetry in him, but poetry of a kind that comes from
a love of Nature, and from the constant and devoted study
of her charms. He could feel the attraction of a piece
of exquisite scenery, and he was entirely responsive to
the witchery of a dainty personality ; but he hardly ever
tried to build upon what he felt a strange edifice of wild
devices with peculiar cryptic significations. It was suffi
cient for him to record the beauty that he enjoyed ; and
he was satisfied if he could give to other people, by his
rendering, something of the pleasure that the exercise of
his faculty of observation had brought to him.
In his youth, when he was closely associated with
men like Rossetti and Holman Hunt, he showed him
self, it is true, to be so far in sympathy with their aspira
tions that he met them not only on the common ground
of naturalism, but as well on that of symbolism. His
earlier pictures, such canvases as "Christ in the House
of His Parents," "Ferdinand lured by Ariel," "Mariana
in the Moated Grange," and " The Woodman's Daughter,"
for example, were not wanting in touches designed to
amplify the pictorial story, embroideries on the main
motive, which, by their variety, made the whole meaning
more attractive, and provided a series of little by-plots to
support and explain the dramatic purpose of the work.
When, however, the necessity for this intimate associa
tion diminished, as the condition of art politics improved,
and the rout of the old conventions became indisputable,
he gave himself up more and more to the avowal of his
independent conviction. He ceased to exert himself to
weave curious webs of fancy, preferring instead to use
his amazing technical power to realise the pleasanter
aspects of Nature. Gradually, but surely, his manner

16 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
changed, passing through the phase of quieter and less
elaborated imagination, which was best illustrated by " The
Random Shot," "Autumn Leaves," "Apple Blossoms,"
and "The Vale of Rest," until, at last, in the middle of
his life, came the sudden development of that convincing
certainty of selection and practice, by which the real
greatness of his ability was impressed upon the public
mind. In this he was following the course that his instincts
taught him to prefer. While the fervour of protest was
upon him, and the vigour of his antagonism to dogmas
that he disliked swayed his judgment, he tried sincerely
enough to adapt his methods to those of the men who
were on his side in the struggle, and he strengthened
his influence over them by concessions to their inclina
tions, and by giving practical proof of his interest in
their aims. But when he felt that he had the chance
to extend his authority beyond the limits of a purely
professional agitation, and to touch a larger public than
would have been within his reach if he had continued
only to advocate the extreme views that agreed well
enough with his early enthusiasm, he very wisely did
not waste his opportunity. By minor modifications that
involved no surrender of the essential articles of his
creed, he made his art perfectly comprehensible, gathering
thereby a whole host of supporters, and, by his considera
tion for the general taste, establishing his popularity, and
that of the school he represented, permanently and
effectively. With all his discretion, and all his keen understanding
of the tactics needed for carrying to success a piece of
complicated policy, he would certainly not have had so
great a personal influence if his artistic qualifications had
been less indisputable. Even when he was most attacked,
at the time when all that ridicule could do to kill the
movement that he was fighting to encourage was being

By permission of the
Corporation of Manchester

AUTUMN LEAVES

INTRODUCTORY 17
tried by artists and critics alike, no one was bold enough
to deny that he was endowed by nature with extraordinary
gifts. He was accused freely enough of want of judgment,
deliberate eccentricity, wilful disregard of aesthetic pro
prieties, irreverence, obstinacy, and a whole host of other
evil tendencies, but never of incapacity. In fact, the con
sciousness of his amazing strength was the inspiring cause
of the bitterness with which his early work was received ;
and when, after a while, angry disparagement and ridicule
both died away in a kind of sulky despair, it was this same
sense of his power that led lovers of art to accept him as
a leader whose authority was not to be questioned.
Perhaps the most eloquent and acute estimate of the
personal fitness of Millais for the profession he followed,
and the best statement of his claim to rank among the
chief men of our school, came from Mr Ruskin, whose
earnest recognition of the purity of the motives by which
the whole band of young reformers was actuated was one
of the first and greatest pieces of encouragement that the
movement received. He, at least, took them seriously,
and felt with them the necessity for strenuous opposition
to those blind guides of a blind public whose unfitness for
any educational work he clearly perceived. In Millais he
most plainly discovered the qualities that make for mighty
achievement, and in a passage in one of his books he draws
a parallel between him and that other giant in British art,
J. M. W. Turner, that in its exquisite appreciation is un
surpassable. So significant, indeed, it is, that it may, with
out apology, be quoted at length as an exact word-picture,
recording with absolute accuracy every intimate feature of
his artistic personality.
" It is always to be remembered," the great critic writes,
" that no one mind is like another, either in its powers or
perceptions ; and while the main principles of training
must be the same for all, the result in each will be as
various as the kinds of truth which each will apprehend ;
B

18 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
therefore, also, the modes of effort, even in men whose
inner principles and final aims are exactly the same.
Suppose, for instance, two men, equally honest, equally
industrious, equally impressed with a humble desire to
render some part of what they saw in nature faithfully ;
and, otherwise, trained in convictions such as I have
endeavoured to induce.. But one of them is quiet in
temperament, has a feeble memory, no invention, and
excessively keen sight. The other is impatient in tem
perament, has a memory which nothing escapes, an
invention which never rests, and is comparatively near
sighted. " Set them both free in the same field in a mountain
valley. One sees everything, small and large, with almost
the same clearness ; mountains and grasshoppers alike ;
the leaves on the branches, the veins in the pebbles, the
bubbles in the stream ; but he can remember nothing, and
invent nothing. Patiently he sets himself to his mighty
task ; abandoning at once all thoughts of seizing transient
effects, or giving general impressions of that which his eyes
present to him in microscopical dissection, he chooses
some small portion out of the infinite scene, and calculates
with courage the number of weeks which must elapse
before he can do justice to the intensity of his perceptions,
or the fulness of matter in his subject.
" Meantime, the other has been watching the change of
the clouds and the march of the light along the mountain
sides ; he beholds the entire scene in broad, soft masses
of true gradation, and the very feebleness of his sight is
in some sort an advantage to him, in making him more
sensible of the aerial mystery of distance, and hiding from
him the multitudes of circumstances which it would have
been impossible for him to represent. But there is not
one change in the casting of the jagged shadows along
the hollows of the hills, but it is fixed on his mind for
ever; not a flake of spray has broken from the sea of

THE ORDER OF RELEASE

INTRODUCTORY 19
cloud about their bases, but he has watched it as it melts
away, and could recall it to its lost place in heaven by the
slightest effort of his thoughts. Not only so, but thousands
and thousands of such images, of older scenes, remain
congregated in his mind, each mingling in new associations
with those now visibly passing before him, and these again
confused with other images of his own ceaseless, sleepless
imagination, flashing by in sudden troops. Fancy how
his paper will be covered with stray symbols and blots,
and undecipherable shorthand : — as for his sitting down
to 'draw from nature' there was not one of the things
which he wished to represent, that stayed for so much as
five seconds together : but none of them escaped for all
that : they are sealed up in that strange storehouse of his ;
he may take one of them out perhaps, this day twenty
years, and paint it in his dark room, far away. Now,
observe, you may tell both of these men, when they are
young, that they are to be honest, that they have an
important function, and that they are not to care what
Raphael did. This you may wholesomely impress on
them both. But fancy the exquisite absurdity of ex
pecting either of them to possess any of the qualities of
the other.
" I have supposed the feebleness of sight in the last, and
of invention in the first painter, that -the contrast between
them might be more striking ; but, with very slight
modification, both the characters are real. Grant to the
first considerable inventive power, with exquisite sense of
colour ; and give to the second, in addition to all his other
faculties, the eye of an eagle ; and the first is John Everett
Millais, the second Joseph Mallard William Turner."
This exhaustive consideration of Millais as an artist,
written though it was in the earlier years of his career,
before his opinions had settled into mature stability, is
equally applicable to the work of his whole life. It
expresses exactly the manner of his instinctive preferences,

20 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
and clearly defines the sources of his controlling influence
upon our native art. He saw things as most people wish
to see them, with absolute clearness of vision, and stated
them frankly and sturdily without any effort to impose a
peculiar view of his own upon the rest of the world.
Realism was always the one unalterable fact by which he
was guided, and the changes which, in the course of time,
came in his purely technical methods, never affected the
intention that inspired his whole range of achievement.
It is as strongly perceptible in " The North- West Passage,"
as in "The Order of Release" or "The Minuet"; it
governs the treatment of the " Yeoman of the Guard," as
surely as that of " Ophelia," or " The Huguenot " ; and it
gives to his portrait of Mr Gladstone, painted in 1885, the
same vivid actuality that distinguished the " Portrait of a
Gentleman and his Grandchild " produced as far back as
1849. To the last his art remained completely convinced ;
and it never lost its power over other minds than his.
The many capable men who sprang up around him,
pledged to the principles which he was advocating, never
diminished his popularity by attracting to themselves any
part of his following. No competition was powerful enough
to oust him from his pre-eminence ; and he retained to his
death the fruits of the victory he won in his youth. His
place in the history of the century is an assured one ; he
gained it fairly, and he held it by sheer strength of
individuality and by the obvious superiority of his artistic
qualities.

CHAPTER II
BIOGRAPHICAL
T T was apparently to his ancestry that the artist who has
played so important a part in the resuscitation of British
art owed his spirit and his energy in attacking established
institutions. He came of a stock which was, in bygone
centuries, by no means unready for conflict with people in
authority. The family, of Norman origin, settled in Jersey
at some date anterior to the Conquest, and it held for
nearly seven hundred years a position of some prominence
among the land-holders of that island. Many entries in
the local records tend to imply that the members of the
Millais clan were men of importance, powerful enough to
set themselves in opposition to their over-lords, and to the
ecclesiastical officials, who tried to exact from them dues
and acknowledgments that they were unwilling to render,
and the recurrence of these entries is frequent enough to
suggest that this independence was something more than
occasional. The estates they held seem to have varied in different
generations, or else there were branches of the family
in many parts of the island, for at various times the
name, in one or other of its many forms, appears in the
documents of most of the parishes. In 1331 Geoffray
Milayes is entered in the Royal Rent Roll; in 1381 John
and Guille Millais are recorded as paying taxes to the
Prior of St Clement's ; in the middle of the fifteenth
century the head of the family, who usually was named
John, settled in the parish of St Saviour; and in 1527
Clement Myllais, presumably one of his descendants, was

22 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
Rector of that parish. By the marriage, about 1540, of
John Myllais to the heiress of the Le Jarderays the Tapon
estate, in the parish of St Saviour, came into the family
and remained in their possession until the beginning of the
present century ; and in 1668 another John Millais is
mentioned as a tenant of the Crown in the parishes of
Grouville and St Clement. The name, even now, is pre
served in the island ; for there is a village called " Millais,"
in the parish of St Ouen, and a range of hills to the north
east of St Heliers is known as " Les Monts Millais."
Although John Everett Millais was born, on June 8,
1829, at Portland Place, Southampton, his father was an
inhabitant of Jersey, and an officer in the island militia.
The first five years of the child's life were spent in Jersey,
but in 1835 he was taken by his parents to Dinan, in
Brittany, where he began, by his sketches of the scenery of
the place and the types of the people, to give the first
convincing proofs of the remarkable artistic capacity that
was in him. These early efforts were so surprising, and
attracted so much attention outside his family circle, that
when he was not more than nine years old he was
brought to London for an expert opinion on his chances
in the profession for which he seemed pre-destined. The
President of the Royal Academy, Sir Martin Archer Shee,
was consulted, and his encouraging declaration, that
" Nature had provided for the boy's success," decided the
future of the young artist, who was at once allowed to
begin serious study. In 1838 he entered the drawing-
school in Bloomsbury which was carried on by Henry
Sass, and regarded as the best available place for the
training of budding genius. In the same year he took the
silver medal of the Society of Arts, for a drawing from the
antique, and caused quite a sensation when he appeared,
at the distribution of the prizes, to receive his award from
the Duke of Sussex, who was presiding. The surprise of
the spectators is said to have been unbounded when " Mr

wOh
O«!
og
waH
o

O

BIOGRAPHICAL 23
Millais" came forward, a tiny child in a pinafore, to
answer to his name, and even the officials at first found
it hard to believe that he would be really the winner of
the medal.
For two years he remained under the tuition of Mr Sass,
an artist who during the earlier years of this century
exhibited at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions a
great many portraits and figure-pictures that are now for
gotten. He deserves to be remembered, not on account
of his own success as a painter, but because he gave to
many men who have since become famous their first
grounding in artistic knowledge. With his teaching, and
a good deal of work from the casts in the British Museum,
the boy developed so rapidly that when he was only
eleven years old he gained admission to the Royal
Academy Schools, the youngest student, it is said, that
has ever been received into them. His career there was
a series of successes. For six years he laboured inde-
fatigably, and gave proof of his ability by taking prize
after prize, beginning with a silver medal in 1843, and
ending, in 1847, with the gold medal for a historical
picture, "The Tribe of Benjamin seizing the Daughters
of Shiloh."
Subjects of this type seem at that time to have attracted
him strongly, and to have occupied a great deal of his
attention, for in 1846 he had painted, and exhibited at
the Academy, "Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru," which
is now in the South Kensington Museum, and in the
following year another study of violent action, "Elgiva
seized by Order of Archbishop Odo." To 1847 also
belongs the great design, "The Widow bestowing her
Mite," for the Westminster Hall competition, a canvas
fourteen feet long by ten feet high, covered with life-size
figures. Such an effort speaks well for the energy and
ambition of a lad of eighteen, who could within the
space of a' few months carry out so vast an under-

24 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
taking in addition to the "Elgiva," and his gold medal
picture. So far his progress had been, from the point of view
of the older men, who were busy with their pompous
artificialities, extremely satisfactory and promising. He
had proved himself to be possessed of rare gifts, and he had
begun to paint just the sort of bombast which was then
entirely fashionable. To all appearance historical art was
to have in him an exponent of exactly the type required
to infuse into its dry bones some spark of vitality, and to
give to its fallacious traditions a touch of credibility. But,
happily for the art of the country, these expectations were
doomed to disappointment. He had only been feeling his
way, and, not having had time as yet to analyse his
inclinations, he had temporarily accepted, with youthful
imitativeness, the precepts of his teachers and fellow-
students. It did not take him long to discover that he
was on the wrong track, and to decide that there was in
another direction a far better opportunity for the assertion
of his own independent convictions. Indeed, he showed in
the shaping of his artistic policy, and in the arranging of
his methods of expression, the same precocity that had
distinguished his manifestation of technical skill. Before
he could have been expected to have come to any clear
opinion about the relative advantage of different phases of
thought, he had actually made up his mind that the school,
of which, for the moment, circumstances had made him a
member, was fundamentally wrong, and that his mission in
life was to destroy it.
He was just nineteen when he elected to take upon
himself this responsibility. About the middle of the year
1848, he, and his friends Rossetti and Holman Hunt, in
spired partly by the example of Ford Madox Brown, and
partly by their own study of the works of the Italian
Primitives who, before the time of Raphael, had laboured
with devout and simple naturalism, formed the idea of

THE HUGUENOT

BIOGRAPHICAL 25
reverting to a type of art which contained the germs of
great achievement. They decided, then and there, that
the principles which guided the early masters, and made
their productions so convincing, were being deliberately
ignored by the modern men, whose second-hand practices
were based upon the conventions created by a long line of
degenerate successors of Raphael and his contemporaries.
So these three youths agreed among themselves to break
away from the rules and regulations by which they had
been bound in their student days, and to proclaim the
truths that they felt their teachers had withheld from them.
From this agreement sprang into existence an association
that, despite the small number of its members and the
shortness of its life, has left upon the history of the British
School a mark clear and ineffaceable.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, as this association
was called by way of plainly declaring the intentions and
ambitions of the men who belonged to it, was formally
constituted during the autumn of 1848. It included,
in addition to the three originators, two other painters,
James Collinson and F. G. Stephens, a sculptor, Thomas
Woolner, and a writer, William Michael Rossetti, who
acted as secretary of the Brotherhood. Ford Madox
Brown never became a member, although he entirely sym
pathised with the artistic aims of the group, for he had,
it is said, doubts concerning the utility of such a banding
together, and was more inclined to favour independent
action ; but several other young painters, who were never
formally of the company, gave it practical support, and
openly adopted its methods. Indeed, the list of these
outside sympathisers soon became a long one ; it included
such able workers as William Bell Scott, Arthur Hughes,
Thomas Seddon, W. L. Windus, and W. H. Deverell, who
were directly inspired by the beliefs of the Brotherhood ;
and if, as would be quite legitimate, it were extended to
take in all the others whose first essays in art were

26 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
controlled by Pre-Raphaelite principles, an astonishing
number of artists who have reached high rank in their
profession could be added to it.
At first the inner significance of the Pre-Raphaelite
movement was lost upon the general public. When, in
1849, Millais exhibited at the Academy his "Lorenzo and
Isabella," by which his adoption of the new creed was
plainly enough asserted, the picture was not unkindly
received. It was ridiculed, perhaps, by the people who
realised that it showed an artistic intention somewhat
unlike that which was then generally prevalent ; but its
novelty of manner was put down to the youth and in
experience of the artist, and was regarded as a minor
defect that a few more years of practice would remedy.
But in January 1850, the Brotherhood took a step that
very effectually removed any doubts that were felt by the
public about the meaning of such canvases. They began
to issue a monthly magazine, called The Germ, in which
they and their friends stated with sufficient plainness what
Pre-Raphaelitism really meant, and what were the opinions
that they professed. As a commercial speculation the
magazine must be reckoned a failure, for after the fourth
number it ceased to be issued, and at no time had it any
general circulation. It served its purpose, however, of
making quite intelligible the creed of its promoters ; and
it gave to the world certain etchings of Holman Hunt,
Collinson, Madox Brown, and Deverell, and much literary
matter by Coventry Patmore, Woolner, W. B. Scott, F. G.
Stephens, the two Rossettis and their sister Christina, and
some other writers. An etching was prepared by Millais
for the fifth number, an illustration of a story that Dante
Rossetti was to write; but this fifth number did not appear.
Though The Germ died so quickly for want of sup
port, it had fully accomplished what was required of it
in the way of propagandism. When the next batch of
Pre-Raphaelite efforts was exhibited in the spring of 1850

THE RETURN OF THE DOVE
TO THE ARK

BIOGRAPHICAL 27
there was no trace of hesitation or toleration in the com
ments of the older artists and the press. A perfect storm
of abuse broke out. Against " Ferdinand lured by Ariel,"
and " Christ in the House of His Parents," which were the
chief pictures sent by Millais to the Academy, the bitterest
attack was directed. They were pronounced to be revo
lutionary and repulsive ; and even their technical ability
was misrepresented. Everything that could be said or
done to minimise their influence, and to discredit the
motives by which they were inspired, was lavished upon
them without restraint, in a kind of frenzy of anguished
excitement. All this, however, was mild in comparison with the
agitation in the following year, when it was seen that
the Pre-Raphaelites, instead of bowing to the storm
and recanting their opinions, were prepared to go to even
greater lengths in the avowal of their convictions. The
opposition had done its best to howl them down, and to
frighten them by ferocious threats ; but all this expenditure
of misapplied energy had had no result. Millais exhibited
" The Woodman's Daughter," " The Return of the Dove to
the Ark," and " Mariana in the Moated Grange," and
Holman Hunt " Valentine and Sylvia " ; while the other
members of the group gave equally definite proofs of their
intention to persevere in the course they had adopted.
Alarm at this defiance, and perhaps an uneasy conscious
ness of the real strength of a movement that gave so little
sign of yielding to pressure, drove the supporters of the
existing condition of affairs to almost incredible lengths.
They demanded that these canvases should be removed
from the exhibition of the Academy, summarily expelled
as outrages on good taste ; they urged the students in the
art schools to shun the Brotherhood, and everyone con
nected with it, as a source of infection, breeding plagues
that, unless promptly stamped out, must inevitably destroy
all that was best and purest in the art of the country;

28 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
they descended to the lowest depths of misrepresentation,
and drew the line at nothing in the way of exaggera
tion. Calm and critical judgment ceased, for the moment,
to exist, and a hysterical absence of balance threw into
confusion even the best ordered and judicious minds.
This outburst had one immediate effect, an unpleasant
one for the young artists, it checked for a while the sale
of their pictures. " Christ in the House of His Parents,"
had been painted on commission for a well-known dealer,
and it remained for many years on his hands ; but
"Ferdinand lured by Ariel," which had also been com
missioned, was refused by the intending purchaser. It was
afterwards sold to Mr Richard Ellison, a collector of rare
discrimination, who was introduced to Millais by a mutual
friend. Other canvases belonging to the same period
either returned from the exhibitions to the artist's studio,
or were parted with at low prices, and on terms of pay
ment none too favourable.
But in a little while things began to mend. The
virulence of the defenders of vested interests exhausted
itself; and here and there strong men showed themselves
ready to champion the cause of the Pre-Raphaelites.
Mr Ruskin came into the arena, an enthusiastic advocate
of an undertaking that was in every way calculated to
appeal to his vivid sympathies. He criticised with no
hesitating utterance the bitter fallacies of the self-con
stituted keepers of the public conscience ; he met attack
with counter-attack ; and he declared with acute and
prophetic insight that the pilloried artists were laying
" the foundations of a school of art nobler than the world
has seen for three hundred years." His explanations of
their methods, and defence of their view of nature, were
just what were needed to set people thinking, and to
undermine the popularity of the dogmatic preachers of
false doctrines. Some years, it is true, elapsed before his
enthusiasm, and the dogged perseverance of the young

APPLE BLOSSOMS

BIOGRAPHICAL 29
men, finally converted the great majority of art lovers, but
the conversion did come, and it was complete.
Meanwhile Millais was manfully playing his part in the
struggle, giving no sign that he minded being, as he put
it in after years, " so dreadfully bullied." Nothing could
shake his resolve to work out his artistic destiny in the
way he thought best, and opposition only strengthened
his belief in the justice of his cause. Happily he was not
entirely without encouragement from the chiefs of his own
profession, for just at the time when the outside world
was decrying him most strenuously, the Academy elected
him an Associate, an action that to modern critics of the
retrograde policy of that institution must seem quite in
explicable. This election was, however, quashed, because
he was discovered to be under the age at which admission
was possible; and it was not till 1853 that he was
again chosen. By this time he had added to the list
of his paintings, his exquisite " Ophelia," " The Huguenot,"
" The Proscribed Royalist," and " The Order of Release,"
all works of the highest value, and regarded to-day as
plain proofs of a quite extraordinary ability. They
fared badly then at the hands of the critics, who did not
take the trouble to understand their significance, and
fastened instead upon trivial imperfections that had no
importance whatever.
For about ten years he remained faithful to the Pre-
Raphaelite creed, and made no serious attempt to modify
his methods. During this period appeared his " Portrait of
Mr Ruskin," " The Rescue," " Autumn Leaves," " The Blind
Girl," "Sir Isumbras at the Ford," "The Vale of Rest,"
and " Apple Blossoms," of which the last two are to be
reckoned as to some extent transitional, leading the way
to the later changes in both his theory and practice.
What was to be the nature of these changes was fore
shadowed by "The Eve of St Agnes," shown at the
Academy in 1863, the year before his advancement to

30 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
the rank of Royal Academician. After this he wavered
for a while between recollections of his earlier style, and a
very definite desire to find other ways of expressing him
self, between the elaborate precision of "Leisure Hours,"
and " Swallow ! Swallow ! " the matter-of-fact of " Asleep "
and "Awake," the grim imagination of "The Enemy
sowing Tares," the elegant formality of " The Minuet," and
the technical freedom of " Joan of Arc " and " Esther."
The variations in his production at this time, implied a
degree of uncertainty in his idea as to the course which
it would be best for him to adopt, a hesitation about the
way in which he would most profitably occupy himself
after the abandonment of those details of his boyish faith
that had served their purpose, and had ceased to be
essential to his advance. He was conscious of the possi
bilities that his wonderful command over his materials
opened up to him, and he knew that his years of devoted
study had given him an equipment of knowledge that
would serve him in any emergency ; what he was seeking
was the exact form in which to cast his efforts so as to
allow full scope to his abilities and to make indisputable"
that wide popularity which was coming to him at last.
There was no hesitation about the avowal of his new
views when finally he did make up his mind. With a
suddenness that was absolutely startling, he abandoned
the close and careful realism that marked in such canvases
as "Asleep," "Awake," and "The Minuet," the still-
continuing influence of his Pre-Raphaelite conviction, and
chose instead the riotous freedom of touch, and the happy
readiness of suggestion that make his " Souvenir of Velas
quez," "Rosalind and Celia," and "Stella," so impressive.
The dramatic point of this change is that a year sufficed
to bring it into active operation. In 1867 he was still
anxious to work out bit by bit and part by part every
fact that his subject might present, and, in his zeal for
naturalism, to leave no chance of mistake about the exact

ROSALIND AND CELIA

JOAN OF ARC

BIOGRAPHICAL 31
meaning of his treatment ; in 1 868 he had thrown himself
heart and soul into the task of persuading his admirers
to accept hints in the place of plain statements, and to
understand subtle compromises with nature, instead of
direct transcriptions of her assertions. He knew so well
what she had to say, that he could trust himself to sum
marise, to avoid minute explanations in telling her story,
and yet to miss nothing of its truth.
Thenceforward his progress was an almost unbroken
series of successes, gained by superb mastery of crafts
manship, and by the splendid confidence in himself that
put his intentions always beyond the possibility of doubt.
With few exceptions his pictures, to the end of his life,
were worthy to rank with the best that the British school
can show, great in accomplishment, admirable in style,
and attractive always by their frankness of manner and
purity of motive. In some ways he enlarged his borders,
for in 1 87 1 he made, with "Chill October," his first
digression into landscape without figures, and began that
array of important studies of the open air, which are to
be reckoned as the plainest evidences of his limitless
patience and searching power of observation.
As a portrait painter, also, he developed superlative
gifts, adding year by year to a collection of master
pieces unequalled by any of his contemporaries. He
was fortunate in his sitters, and the list of his pro
ductions in this branch of art includes a large proportion
of the most beautiful women and distingushed men who
have graced the latter half of the century. He immortal
ised impartially leaders of fashion, pretty children, noted
politicians, and people eminent in many professions ; and
in his rendering of these various types he missed nothing
of the individuality and distinctive character with which
each one was endowed. Here especially his Pre-Raphaelite
training stood him in good stead ; for the habit of close
analysis and careful investigation had been so impressed

32 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
upon him by the experiences of his youth that his in
stinctive judgment was now perfectly reliable, and his
ability to decide promptly and with certainty about the
aspects of his subject which were fittest for pictorial
record had become absolutely complete.
In this succession of portraits some stand out command-
ingly as notable performances even for an artist, who was
always distinguished — for example, "Mrs Bischoffsheim,"
" Miss Eveleen Tennant," " Mrs Jopling," " Mrs Perugini,"
"Sir Henry Irving," "The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone
(1885)," "J. C. Hook, R.A.," and "The Marquis of
Salisbury," marking great moments in his career ; just as
from time to time figure compositions of rare importance,
like "The North- West Passage," "Effie Deans," "The
Princes in the Tower," and " Speak ! Speak ! " punctuated
the progress of his intellectual and imaginative evolution.
He was always, to the last day of his life, ambitious and
eager to grapple with problems of technical expression.
Courage to face the supreme difficulties of his profession
never failed him. He had no idea of avoiding responsi
bilities, or of finding in an easy convention a way to evade
his duty to art ; and he tried consistently to bring his
production up to the high level that would satisfy his
ideals. When he missed his aim — and there is no such
thing as unvarying success for any artist — it was not for
want of thought or sincere effort, but rather from over-
anxiety. He once said of himself, " I may honestly say
that I never consciously put an idle touch upon canvas,
and that I have always been earnest and hard-working;
yet the worst pictures I ever painted in my life are those
into which I threw most trouble and labour " ; and in
these few words he summed up his whole history.
It was characteristic of him that the honours which were
heaped upon him in his later years should have diminished
neither the strength of his work nor the charm of his
personality. Affectation or self-consciousness were the

J. C. HOOK, R.A.

By permission of the Fine Art
Society ', owners of the copyright

THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER

BIOGRAPHICAL 33
last things that were possible to such a nature with its
almost boyish energy and magnificent vitality. Yet he
had every reason to be proud of success that had come to
him, not by fortunate chance, but as a result of his own
tenacity. He was made an Officer of the Legion of
Honour, and received the Medaille d' Honneur at the
Paris International Exhibition in 1878 ; the degree of
D.C.L. was conferred upon him at Oxford in 1880, and
at Durham in 1893 j ne was elected a Trustee of the
National Portrait Gallery in 1881, a Foreign Associate of
the Academie des Beaux Arts in 1882, and President of
the Royal Academy in 1896; he was created a Baronet
in 1885, and an Officer of the Order of Leopold in 1895 ;
and was, besides, an Officer of the Order of St Maurice,
and the Prussian Order " Pour la Merite," and a member
of the Academies of Vienna, Belgium, Antwerp, and of St
Luke, Rome, and San Fernando, Madrid. He was one of
the few Englishmen invited to contribute his portrait to
the great collection of pictures of artists painted by them
selves in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. Such a record
proves most cogently the manner in which the public
estimate of his capacity changed as years went on ; it is
instructive to compare its unanimity of recognition with
the story of the time when art teachers were urging their
pupils to greet the name of Millais with hisses, and were
holding up his work, and that of his associates, to the
bitterest execration.
The post of President of the Royal Academy he held
for only six months, for he succeeded Lord Leighton on
February 20th, 1896, and died on 13th of August in the
same year. His election, however, rounded off appropri
ately that long association with the Academy to which he
referred in his speech at the 1895 banquet, at which he
presided in the absence of Lord Leighton. " I must tell
you briefly my connection with this Academy. I entered
the Antique School as a probationer, when I was eleven

34 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
years of age ; then became a student in the Life School ;
and I have risen from stage to stage until I reached the
position I now hold of Royal Academician : so that, man
and boy, I have been intimately connected with this
Academy for more than half-a-century. I have received
here a free education as an artist — an advantage any lad
may enjoy who can pass a qualifying examination — and I
owe the Academy a debt of gratitude I never can repay.
I can, however, make this return — I can give it my love.
I love everything belonging to it, the casts I have drawn
from as a boy, the books I have consulted in our Library,
the very benches I have sat on." No other teaching
institution had, indeed, had any part in his education ; no
other art society had, by throwing over him the aegis of
its influence, given him invaluable assistance at a moment
when the world was against him ; and in no other direction
had such practical belief in the greatness of his future been
manifested. Truly, he owed a debt of gratitude to the
Academy, and he repaid it by being ever one of its most
active supporters, and by doing infinite credit to its best
traditions. His death not only left a gap in the ranks of art, but
it also took away, while he was yet in the full enjoyment
of his powers, a man whose sterling qualities had attracted
a host of friends. His frankness and honesty, his geniality
and kindliness, and, above all, his manly wholesomeness,
without taint of modern decadence or morbidity, endeared
him to everyone with whom he came in contact. He was
typically English, in the best sense, with all the physical
and mental attributes that have enabled our race to
dominate the world, a lover of the country, a good shot,
a keen fisherman, and a fearless horseman. The very look
of him, with his stalwart, well set-up figure, and handsome,
self-reliant face, conveyed the impression of perfect health
of mind and body, and declared the inexhaustible vigour
of his nature.

A FORERUNNER

BIOGRAPHICAL 35
His life-long instinct was to fight strenuously against
everything that looked like injustice or oppression, and
in the Academy he championed assiduously every cause
that seemed to him to lack its due measure of support.
Especially was he an advocate of generous encouragement
for the great school of black and white drawing that has
sprung up of recent years ; and it was his constant desire
to see the illustrator accorded something of the official
recognition which has hitherto been reserved, unfairly, as
he argued, for painters and sculptors only — a desire that
had its origin in that love of illustrative work which was
so happily exemplified by his own ample achievement in
black and white.
There was something peculiarly pathetic in the fact that
his life should have ended just when he had reached the
position that must have seemed to him after his long and
intimate connection with the Academy, the most honour
able to which he could aspire. To be the head of the
institution that he loved so well, and to be hailed as chief
in the place that had seen every stage of his development,
from childhood to ripe maturity, could not fail to be any
thing but exquisitely gratifying to a man of his nature.
But almost at the moment of his election it appeared that
there was little time left him in which to enjoy the honour
that had crowned his many years of devotion to the great
principles of art. The fatal disease that had gripped him
a little while before was not to be shaken off, and was
sapping rapidly and effectually even his superb vitality.
He worked on, however, almost to the end, hopeful even
in the midst of suffering, active in carrying out the duties
of his office, and busy as ever with the canvases that
crowded his studio. He was fully represented in the
Academy Exhibition of 1896, by a group of portraits,
and by a picture, "A Forerunner," which showed no
sign of failing strength or of any relaxation in his grasp
of the essentials of his craft,

36 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
Then, with painful suddenness, came the verdict of his
doctors, that his case was hopeless. The throat trouble,
that had been growing month by month more acute and
distressing, was pronounced to be cancer and incurable.
In June the disease had made such strides that the end
seemed to be imminent, but an operation gave him some
relief, and his life was prolonged till the middle of August,
when at last death released him from his agony. He
passed away at the house in Palace Gate, Kensington,
that had been the scene of the many triumphs of his
later years, dying as he had lived, full of courage and
patience, fearing nothing, and meeting his fate with
cheerful resignation. On August 20th, he was buried in
St Paul's Cathedral, beside his old friend Lord Leighton,
whom only a few months before he had helped to lay
to rest.

SIR JOHN E. MILLAIS, BART.

CHAPTER III
YEAR BY YEAR — EARLY WORKS
HpHE opportunities that have been afforded for the proper
appreciation of the life-work of Sir John Millais have
fortunately been both interesting and adequate. As it
was particularly important that the value of his interven
tion in the aesthetic developments of the last fifty years
should be thoroughly understood, and that there should be
no doubt in the public mind about the significance of his
contribution to modern art history, we may fairly con
gratulate ourselves on the fact that the whole sequence of
effort should have been illustrated more than once by com
prehensive and exhaustive exhibitions. In this way a later
generation has been made familiar with those earlier stages
of his practice, which must be considered before the mean
ing of his more recent performances can be fully realised ;
and to the present-day art lover, the foundations of his
aesthetic belief have been revealed in their right relation to
the superstructure built upon them.
In the galleries of the Fine Art Society in 1881, at the
Grosvenor Gallery in 1886, at the Manchester Art Trea
sures Exhibition in 1887, at the Academy in 1898, the
story of the artist's life was told with all possible cogency
by the aid of his own pictures, gathered together and placed
in instructive juxtaposition. The canvases with which he
challenged, in the fifties, the opposition of the older men,
the later works which marked the victory of the Pre-
Raphaelites, and the many masterpieces that brought him
at last to his position of assured pre-eminence, provided in
these shows exquisite proofs of his capacity, and summar-
37

38 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
ised for the benefit of people who had been unable to
follow his progress step by step, the steady working out of
his intentions. Necessarily, it was impossible in any exhi
bition to collect more than a moderate proportion of an
output that totalled over three hundred and fifty in oil
paintings alone, without taking into account any of that
mass of black and white drawings with which he is also to
be credited. But at the Grosvenor Gallery, and again at
the Academy, enough of his work was shown to make
clear his aesthetic purpose, and to leave no question about
his right to attention.
Both collections had the merit of justifying quite com
pletely the claim, which has so often been advanced on
behalf of the artist, that his precocity was almost without
parallel. They left no room for doubt concerning the
reality of his command over technical intricacies at an age
when most students have scarcely begun to think about
applying to independent practice the knowledge acquired
during their school training, and proved him to be possessed,
even as a lad, of an insight into the details of his profession
which comes as a rule only to the mature mind. The
precocity that they revealed was not merely that of per
formance, an early acquirement of the devices of craftsman
ship ; it was, as well, a surprising completeness of conviction
about the application of executive methods to the illustra
tion of well-considered principles. There was nothing
tentative or undecided about the pictures which began the
record of his working life ; they were essentially the efforts
of a man who knew his own mind, and wished to impress
upon other people ideas that he had formed in perfect
good faith.
Really the only period during which he worked, as
students will, without reasoning about the meaning of what
he was doing, and content simply to reflect the view of
others, was when he was between fourteen and eighteen.
He had not freed himself then from the taint of the times.

By permission of the
Corporation of Liverpool

LORENZO AND ISABELLA

YEAR BY YEAR— EARLY WORKS 39
The influence of the bastard " grand style " with which the ^
men about him were afflicted was for a little while power
ful enough to carry him into extravagances, and to delay
the shaping of his individuality. His paintings before
1848 were quite in the fashion of the moment, designed to
display his facility in composition and his skill in mechan
ism, with something of the violence of B. R. Haydon, the
gorgeousness of Etty, the pedantry of Maclise, and with
touches of the mannerism of many other artists who were
then doing their best — or worst — for English Art. Etty *-
certainly occupied his thoughts when he produced " Cymon
and Iphigenia," which he seems to have begun when he
was about seventeen, though he did not finish it until 185 1 ;
and there is a strong suggestion of Haydon in the strain
and theatrical pose of " Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru."
More of his real self appeared in the enormous picture,
" The Widow bestowing her Mite," prepared for the West
minster Hall Exhibition, and the six lunettes which he
executed for the Judge's Lodgings at Leeds in 1847;
more self-restraint and better judgment. They showed
that he was beginning to think for himself, with less
dependence upon the arbitrary rules laid down by the
convention-mongers who were ready to welcome him as
of their company. The lunettes, which now hang in the
Corporation Art Gallery at Leeds, were, indeed, distinctly
meritorious as attempts in serious design ; and " The
Widow bestowing her Mite," though hardly equal in
carrying out to its great intention, was very interesting
as a display of youthful ambition. This picture, by the
way, no longer exists in its complete form ; it was bought
by a dealer who cut it in two: one piece is now at
Tynemouth, the other in America.
In the following year he exhibited at the Academy a
portrait of "W. Hugh Fenn," and at the British Insti
tution, his gold medal picture. Meanwhile the new
influence was coming into his life, and, under the stimulus

4o JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
of a fresh conviction, he was preparing for that radical
change of direction which was to make his future work
so important. Pre-Raphaelitism was to be henceforth his
guiding principle, and the assertion of the highest truths
of art was to be his aim. So he agreed with Rossetti
and Holman Hunt that they should each choose a sub
ject from " Isabella and the Pot of Basil," the poem by
Keats, and paint it with absolute fidelity to the tenets of
their common creed, with strict regard for facts, and
without departing in the smallest degree from nature.
Out of this agreement came the picture which was the
only contribution by Millais to the Academy of 1849.
It was characteristic of him that he should be the only
one of the three to fulfil his part of the arrangement. While
the others were troubling with laborious preparations, he
had made up his mind about the treatment of the motive
he had chosen, had settled every detail, and finally had
carried to triumphant completion a very remarkable com
position. This picture, his " Lorenzo and Isabella," with
its amazing care in the rendering of textures and surfaces,
its minute finish, its delicate colour, and its brilliancy of
illumination, is uncompromising in its realism, and extra
ordinarily patient in its representation of the material
selected. The various figures were painted from friends
and relations of the young artist — from his sister-in-law, Mrs
Hodgkinson, his father, the two Rossettis, Mrs F. G.
Stephens, and some fellow-students. The reception
accorded to the picture by the critics was on the whole not
unfavourable, though it was pronounced to have " too much
mannerism," and to be the work of a man "evidently
enslaved by preference for a false style."
That Millais had made up his mind about the merits of
such mannerism, and had a very pronounced belief in his
" false style," was seen plainly enough a twelvemonth later
when "Ferdinand lured by Ariel," the "Portrait of a
Gentleman and his Grandchild," and " Christ in the House

THE PROSCRIBED ROYALIST

THE BLACK BRUNSWICKER

YEAR BY YEAR— EARLY WORKS 41
of his Parents," appeared at the Academy. The first of
these three canvases illustrates the line from " The
Tempest," " Where should this music be ? i' the air, or the
earth?" and represents Ferdinand walking in an open
space before a wood, with Ariel and a crew of gauze-
winged sprites hovering around him, a wonderful study of
brilliant sunlight, and luxuriant landscape detail, and as
noteworthy for its quaintness of imagination as for its
beauty of finish. It is, however, less ambitious than
"Christ in the House of his Parents," in which all the
resources of Pre-Raphaelitism were turned to good account,
and the logic of the new creed was asserted with unquestion
ing faith. A verse in Zechariah, " And one shall say unto
him, ' What are these wounds in thine hands ? ' Then he
shall answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the
house of my friends,' " provided the motive ; and the same
exact observation that gave significance to " Lorenzo and
Isabella " controlled the execution.
As a religious painting of a Holy Family this work was,
from the point of view of the period, to be assigned to "the
lowest depths of what is mean, odious, repulsive, and
repelling." It certainly shows no respect for any of the
traditions which were then popularly supposed to call for
the unquestioning support of every artist, for the spirit by
which was inspired such a composition, for instance, as
Sir Charles Eastlake's " Christ lamenting over Jerusalem," ,
a picture, now in the Tate Gallery, which explains very
well the sort of feebleness that was in fashion in the middle
of the century. Millais did not hesitate to put on one side
all the namby-pamby prettiness and elegant affectation
which governed the production of his contemporaries, and
struck out for himself in a very different direction. He
laid the scene of his story in the house of Joseph, and, to
quote another critic, associated the characters, of the sacred
story " with the meanest details of a carpenter's shop, with
no conceivable omission of misery, of dirt, and even of

42 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
disease, all finished with the same loathsome minuteness."
The child Christ stands before the carpenter's bench with
the Virgin kneeling beside him preparing to bind up
with a piece of linen a wound in his hand, at which Joseph,
leaning forward from the end of the bench, is looking. St
Anne in the background is picking up a pair of pincers,
and beside Joseph is John the Baptist coming towards the
central group with a bowl of water in his hands. An
assistant on the other side of the picture watches the
incident gravely.
* The keynote of the whole composition is its earnest
symbolism. Every one of the lovingly-laboured details
explains something of the story, the tools on the wall, the
dove perched on the ladder, and the sheep, typifying the
faithful, and the wattled fence, an emblem of the Church,
which are seen through the doorway ; while in the meadow
beyond is placed a well as a symbol of Truth. In its
imaginative qualities, the picture is not less masterly than
in its technical accuracy, and excites as much wonder by
the depth of thought it reveals as by its astonishing ac
complishment. It is the greatest of all the artist's earlier
works, marking definitely his emancipation from the
influences of his student days, and his development in
craftsmanship. He exhibited next " The Woodman's Daughter," which
he had begun in 1849, and with it " Mariana in the Moated
V Grange," and " The Return of the Dove to the Ark," three
pictures of medium size, which excited the intense in
dignation of the commentators on the art work of the
year, and drew from Mr Ruskin the first eloquent ex
pression of his approval of the purpose of the Brotherhood,
and his advocacy of the claim of Millais and his friends
to the support of everyone who had honest convictions
about artistic questions. To the same date belongs " The
Bridesmaid," known at one time as " All Hallow's E'en,"
an exquisite study of a girl passing, in accordance with

THE BRIDESMAID

^

YEAR BY YEAR— EARLY WORKS 43
the old superstition, a piece of bride-cake through a
ring. This canvas is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at
Cambridge, to which it was presented in 1888 by Mr T.
R. Harding.
In 1852 he gave an astonishing display of his ability ; for
he had at the Academy " Ophelia," and " The Huguenot " —
which was then called " A Huguenot, on St Bartholomew's
Day, refusing to shield himself from Danger by wearing
the Roman Catholic Badge," — as well as a portrait of
Mrs Coventry Patmore, and another portrait entitled
" Memory." The " Ophelia," which is happily now the
property of the nation, and hangs in the Tate Gallery, is
an admirable example of his searching study of natural
details, close and elaborate in its realisation of every part
of the subject, and curiously true in its rendering of the
subtle tones of brilliant daylight. The face of Ophelia
was painted from Miss Siddal, who afterwards became the
wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the landscape setting
was exactly copied from a bit of the Ewell River, near
Kingston. With the " Huguenot," though he did not
succeed in silencing the whole of his detractors, he gained
the heart of the public. The pathos of the subject, and
the dramatic strength of its story, were well calculated to
persuade everyone who could judge without bias, and
could feel the charm of the painting even through its
unaccustomed style. While the picture was on exhibition
it was always surrounded by a crowd, and it was sold,
for £\ 50, to a dealer, who afterwards gave the artist an
extra £$0 because it brought considerable profit when
engraved. During the next three years his chief productions were
" The Proscribed Royalist," " The Order of Release," " The
Portrait of Mr Ruskin," and " The Rescue." Of these the
most fortunate, both in idea and execution, is " The Order
of Release," a Highland woman bringing in triumph to the
prison in which her husband is confined, the signed

44 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
authority for his restoration to freedom. The little drama
is most convincingly played, and the different characters,
even to the collie dog that leaps up to lick his master's
hand, perform their parts with complete sincerity. There
is hardly so much conviction in " The Proscribed Royalist,"
a Puritan maiden visiting her Cavalier lover who is hiding
in a hollow oak tree : there is even an obvious touch of
artificiality ; but as a display of superb industry, and
exquisite management of the intricacies of woodland
scenery, this picture is certainly to be ranked among the
artist's best.
The same exquisite industry made his " Portrait of Mr
Ruskin " supremely valuable as a technical achievement.
He reached in it the highest level of pure Pre-Raphael
itism, and showed most surely the perfection of the strict
principles by which his artistic personality had been
shaped. The great critic stands bare-headed and almost
in profile on the rocky bank beside the waterfall of
Glenfinlas, in the Highlands, posing easily and naturally ;
and the artist has painted both the figure and its
surroundings with searching knowledge. The landscape
background especially, " pure, vivid, and solid as a sincere
and spontaneous mode of painting could make it," to quote
a contemporary criticism from the Athenceum, can only
be described as magnificent, finer even than the leafy
setting of the " Ophelia." This portrait was not seen in
public until 1881, when it was included in the collection
at the galleries of the Fine Art Society. Two other small
pictures, "Waiting," and "A Highland Lassie," both un-
exhibited, are to be assigned to the year 1854. The
" Highland Lassie " was a study for " Waiting," which is
also known as " A Girl at a Stile." It was painted from
the lady, Miss Euphemia Chalmers Gray, whom he
married in 1855.
Concerning the merits of "The Rescue," most people
seem to have agreed. Mr Ruskin pronounced it to be

A HIGHLAND LASSIE

YEAR BY YEAR— EARLY WORKS 45
the only great picture of its year, and praised it as much
on account of its truth as of its sentiment ; while another
critic described it as " one of those subjects which illustrate
our ideal of the proper functions of art." The incident,
a fireman rescuing three young children from a burning
house, on the staircase of which kneels their mother, waiting
to take them from his arms, was exactly calculated to
appeal to the popular fancy ; and the manner in which the
artist studied and realised the effects of tone and colour
made the work, as an essay in technicalities, quite un
usually important. It was painted in great haste, and was
finished only just in time for exhibition in the 1855
Academy; but the speed with which it was executed
gave it a degree of vigour thoroughly appropriate to a
subject so filled with action.
As he had shown nothing in 1854, and only this one
canvas in 1 85 5, Millais took care to do himself more ample
justice in the following year. " Autumn Leaves " appeared
then, and with it " The Random Shot," " Peace Concluded,
1856," "The Blind Girl," and the "Portrait of a Gentle
man," also known as " The Picture Book." The especial
subtlety of " Autumn Leaves," which is now rightly admired
as one of the most perfect pieces of poetic and tender
sentiment that he ever produced, was not immediately
appreciated, and the symbolism of the composition was
not readily understood ; but the expert observers saw in it
qualities of the noblest kind, and a judgment of atmos
pheric effects such as no other living man could be said
to possess. Mr Ruskin ranked "Autumn Leaves" and
" Peace Concluded " among the masterpieces of the world,
and with generous enthusiasm asserted that " Titian him
self could hardly head him now." " The Random Shot," or,
as it was first called, " L'Enfant du Regiment," represents
an incident in the French Revolution : a child, accidentally
wounded, lying upon a monument in a church that is
being defended by some soldiers who are seen firing from

46 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
a window. The monument was painted from the tomb of
Sir Gervaise Allard, in the old church at Winchelsea, where
the artist was staying in the autumn of 1855. "The Blind
Girl," another of his minute realisations of landscape
details, and notable as well for its true and natural pathos
was produced at the same time. The village of Winchelsea
is seen on the hill behind the figures. "Pot-Pourri," a
small picture of two young girls also belongs to this year.
At the next Academy exhibition his chief work was " Sir
Isumbras at the Ford," originally known as " A Dream of
the Past," an allegory susceptible of many interpretations,
and one that the public had some difficulty in under
standing. It was freely attacked and discussed, and it
drew down a measure of denunciation from Mr Ruskin,
who summed it up as " a rough sketch of a great subject,"
and described it as " not merely a Fall — it is Catastrophe."
Yet its fineness of design, and beauty of twilight effect
have placed it, according to the modern estimate of the
artist's achievement, among the best of his canvases. It
takes certainly a much higher position than " The Escape
of a Heretic," a piece of plain melodrama, or " News from
Home," a Highlander reading a letter as he sits on the
trenches at the Crimea, both of which were with it at the
Academy. Two heads, which were in the 1898 exhibition
at Burlington House, were painted at this time, and have
a special interest because they are the only pictures by
Millais which suggest that he was ever perceptibly in
fluenced by Rossetti.
There was another break in the sequence of his con
tributions to the Academy, in 1858 ; and it was not till
the following spring that "The Vale of Rest" shocked
the public, that, after having become accustomed to Millais
the Pre-Raphaelite, now found themselves called upon to
accept him in quite another guise, as a symbolist and
imaginative moralist. He had entered upon his transition,
and had moved far from the literalism of " Christ in the

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THE MINUET

YEAR BY YEAR— EARLY WORKS 49
Enemy Sowing Tares," "Joan of Arc," "Esther," "The
Romans leaving Britain," and "Swallow! Swallow!"
and two other canvases at the French Gallery. Neither
" The Romans leaving Britain," nor " Swallow ! Swallow ! "
can be accounted as anything but indifferent illustrations
of his capacity : the one is weak and inconclusive ; the
other violent in colour and wanting in charm ; and " Joan
of Arc," strong though it is as a piece of pure painting,
is really nothing but a clever costume study. But " The
Enemy Sowing Tares" has a dramatic significance that
is rare even in his most imaginative efforts, an amount of
intellectual purpose greater than almost any of his other
pictures can be credited with. He had treated the same
subject as one of the illustrations to a book, " The Parables
of Our Lord," which was published about 1864. The figure
of the sower personifies the Evil One, who is scattering the
seed with an expression of grim pleasure in ill-doing, while
around him slink and crawl prowling things dimly seen
in the gloom of night. The artist, who had just been
promoted to the rank of Royal Academician, intended
this to be his Diploma picture ; but when he offered it to
the Council it was, strangely enough, not appreciated,
and therefore refused. A little later on he deposited the
"Souvenir of Velasquez" instead.
As a brilliant contrast to the strange fancy of "The
Enemy Sowing Tares," there appeared in 1867 one of
the brightest and most delightful of his paintings, " The
Minuet." A young child in a scarlet dress, which she
holds up with a due sense of importance, is just beginning
a dance in a room sumptuously hung with tapestries that
make an effective background to her gay attire. Her
quaint air of responsibility, and her childish stateliness, are
particularly attractive, and are suggested by the artist with
charming freshness and yet with just the right hint of -old-
fashioned formality. With this delicate expression of
youthful graces was exhibited his " Jephthah," a great and
D

SO JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
serious composition, representing the champion of Israel
seated in his house with his daughter beside him ; and,
as well, two small pictures, " Asleep," and " Awake," that,
in the minute and elaborate treatment of accessories, and
in the precision of touch employed to define and realise
every detail, reverted almost to the unsparing labour of
his Pre-Raphaelite days.
But they really marked finally and distinctly the end
of his early methods, and might almost have been painted
with the deliberate intention of emphasising the change
in his technical manner that was immediately at hand.
With them he bade farewell to the executive devices
that had served him so well in the past, and rounded off
that busy period of his life in which were included
the brilliant successes of his youth, the struggles of his
early manhood, and the steady progress from misunder
standing and misrepresentation to the general and sincere
acceptance which it was his fortune to gain before he had
reached middle age.

ASLEEP

JUST AWAKE

CHAPTER IV
YEAR BY YEAR — LATER WORKS
TXTHEN, in the Academy exhibition of 1868, people,
who had retained vivid recollections of the pictures
with which their favourite, Millais, had delighted them only
a year before, looked to see what were the canvases he had
prepared to carry on the impression created by " Asleep,"
" Awake," and " The Minuet," something of a shock must
have been experienced by them. They had known him
last as a careful and exact manipulator, a lover of high
finish, and an exponent of all the little subtleties of nature ;
when they met him again after the brief interval of a
twelvemonth they found him a robust impressionist, glory
ing in his power to give by a few large and decisive
touches a significant summary of many facts, and eager to
render great effects rather than minutely analysed and
carefully selected details. From "The Minuet" to the
" Souvenir of Velasquez " was a change that could not be
mistaken or explained away. It meant that he had
abandoned the restrictions of the Pre-Raphaelite method
and had begun to apply its principles in such a way that
he could aim at the highest flights of executive expression.
This change was illustrated not only by the " Souvenir
of Velasquez," but as well by the other pictures that he
sent to the Academy with this delightful instance of his
understanding of childish character. There was the same
technical spirit in "Rosalind and Celia," in "Stella," a
splendidly vigorous painting of a half-length figure, in
" Pilgrims to St Paul's," now better known as " Greenwich
Pensioners at the Tomb of Nelson," and in " The Sisters,"
5i

52 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
a portrait group of his three daughters in white and blue
dresses set against a background of pink and white azaleas.
To the same year belong also some smaller works, among
them another with the title, " The Bride," which was used
two or three times by the artist at different periods.
That his new manner was not the result of a momentary
fancy, or of a passing desire for experiment, was seen
clearly next year when his portrait of " Nina, daughter of
F. Lehmann, Esq." was exhibited ; for in this canvas he
showed an amount of mastery that surpassed even the
certainty and ready contrivance of the " Souvenir of
Velasquez " ; and another piece of masculine brush-work,
" Vanessa," a companion to the " Stella " that had been
seen in the previous exhibition, proved that the wish to
rival the great executants of other schools had possessed
him completely. " The Gambler's Wife," a " Portrait of Sir
John Fowler," and a couple of water-colours, completed
the list of his contributions to the 1869 Academy. These
were followed by a group that was as interesting for varied
accomplishment as for the evidence it afforded of his
unhesitating progress. It included "A Widow's Mite,"
which was a picture very different in its inspiration from
his Westminster Hall design, "The Knight Errant," "A
Flood," " The Boyhood of Raleigh," and two portraits.
Of these the most conspicuous were " The Boyhood of
Raleigh," and "The Knight Errant." The first is to be
regarded as one of his happiest pieces of sentiment, a
pleasant romance related with natural charm, and with a
touch of human feeling that makes it most persuasive.
The figures of the young Raleigh and his companion, who
are sitting on the old pier of a Devonshire seaport, listen
ing to the tales of adventure told them by a sunburnt
sailor, are happily conceived, and the atmosphere of the
whole picture is exactly appropriate. There is no strain
ing after effect, no exaggeration, and the whole scheme is
carried out with perfect consistency. In "The Knight

By permission of the
Corporation of Liverpool

THE MARTYR OF THE SOLWAY

THE KNIGHT ERRANT

THE BRIDE

YEAR BY YEAR— LATER WORKS S3
Errant," romance of a more fanciful kind is attempted, a
story with a flavour of mediaevalism that fits it well.
The picture, however, is remarkable especially because it
provides one of the few instances in which Millais set him
self to paint the nude figure ; and it has a technical interest
of an unusual sort because it puts beyond question his
ability to excel in a branch of practice that is universally
admitted to be exceptionally difficult, and to require the
rarest combination of knowledge and skill. As a study
of flesh texture the figure of the maiden, who has been
stripped by robbers and bound to a tree, is worthy of all
praise ; and as a piece of subtle yet glowing colour it is
comparable with the best efforts of the Venetian Masters.
The armour, too, of the Knight who is setting her free is
superbly handled. Some of the quality of the work is,
perhaps, to be attributed to the comparative haste with
which it was painted ; it is said to have been completed in
not more than six weeks.
A story is told with reference to this painting that is
worth quoting, especially as it helps to fix the date of
another of his productions. In his first arrangement of
the figures he had turned the girl's head towards the
spectator, and had thereby injured appreciably the senti
ment of the composition. So dissatisfied was he with
the result that he was at first inclined to destroy the
picture ; but, upon consideration, another way of solving
the difficulty was found. The head was cut out and a
fresh piece of canvas sewn in. On this he painted the
face as it now appears, in profile ; and by the change he
greatly improved the pictorial effect. The piece with the
original head was preserved, and is supposed, after having
been inserted in a larger canvas, to have been completed
as "The Martyr of the Solway." This supposition is
certainly borne out by the strong similarity between the
pose of the martyr and that of the nude figure in " The
Knight Errant."

54 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
In 1 87 1 he broke new ground, and, with " Chill October,"
began that series of great landscapes to which for some
while he devoted himself with unwavering application and
intense respect for nature. Until 1880 there was scarcely
any break in the succession of these canvases, for " Flowing
to the Sea" and "Flowing to the River" appeared in 1872,
"Scotch Firs" and "Winter Fuel" in 1874, "The Fringe
of the Moor" and "The Deserted Garden" in 1875, "Over
the Hills and Far Away" in 1876, "The Sound of Many
Waters" in 1877, "St Martin's Summer" in 1878, and
"Urquhart Castle" in 1879; but then there were no more
until 1888, when "Murthly Moss" was at the Academy,
and " Christmas Eve " at Mr Maclean's gallery.
These landscapes, however, represent a very small pro
portion of the memorable pictures that made the period
between the beginning of the seventies and the middle of
the eighties specially distinguished even in his remarkable
career. During these fifteen years he produced about a
hundred and fifty works of different kinds, and among
them were many that mark the highest and most perfect
development of his art. With " Chill October," he sent to
the Academy " Yes, or No ? " " Victory, O Lord ! " " A Som
nambulist," and the "Portrait of George Grote"; and in
1 872 came his famous portrait group, " Hearts are Trumps,"
which was hailed at the time with enthusiasm, and has
remained ever since in high favour with all lovers of his
work. It is generally supposed to have been painted in
rivalry of the famous picture of the Ladies Waldegrave,
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, but it bears really only a super
ficial resemblance to that celebrated canvas, and owes its
distinction far more to the inventiveness and ability of the
modern master than to any imitation of his predecessor.
Some other portraits were exhibited with it.
Another splendid technical achievement, the " Portrait of
Mrs Bischoffsheim," belongs to the following year. With
this he stamped himself as the indisputable leader of our

MRS BISCHOFFSHEIM

YEAR BY YEAR— LATER WORKS 55
school, supreme in accomplishment, and alone in his mar
vellous command over the intricacies of executive practice.
Never before had he shown himself so consummately able,
or so confident in his extraordinary readiness of resource ;
and only occasionally in the years that followed can he
be said to have reached the same degree of perfection.
His admirable portraits of " Mrs Heugh " and " Sir William
Sterndale Bennett," and three pictures, " Early Days," " Oh,
that a Dream so long Enjoyed," and " New-Laid Eggs," a
pretty fancy painted from one of his daughters, were
hung in the same exhibition ; but their merits were to
some extent overshadowed by the superlative power of
" Mrs Bischoffsheim."
That this performance was not a happy accident, one
of those chance successes which sometimes come to an
artist as a result of a fortunate combination of circum
stances, was put beyond doubt by the character of his
contributions to the 1874 Academy exhibition. He fully
maintained the high level of craftsmanship at which he had
arrived in the previous year, but he displayed his strength
in a large and ambitious composition, an important subject-
picture instead of a portrait. " The North- West Passage "
may fairly be reckoned as the most complete assertion of
his mature conviction that he ever put before the public.
Its motive was one calculated to appeal vividly to his
militant instincts, and was suited in every way to his
robust and energetic personality. The idea of indomitable
perseverance in the face of difficulties seemingly insur
mountable, of tenacious effort to triumphantly accomplish
a great intention, was quite in accordance with his natural
sympathies; and the picture has therefore an inner
significance to which almost as much interest attaches as
to its outward aspect of unhesitating certainty. It is,
perhaps, a little unequal in execution, but parts of it are
magnificent, and especially the head of the old seaman,
who sits at the table and listens to the story of Arctic

56 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
exploration that is being read to him by the girl seated
at his feet. The sitter for this splendid study of rugged
age was Mr Trelawny, the friend of Shelley and Byron.
To the same year as " The North- West Passage " belong
" The Picture of Health," a three-quarter-length figure of
a young girl, with her hands in a muff, and long hair
falling over her shoulders, standing in a garden ; " A Day
Dream"; a portrait of "The Hon. Walter Rothschild";
and " Still for a Moment," a vivacious picture of a child
in a white pinafore, seated on the trunk of a fallen tree,
with a little dog in her lap. These were followed by some
more portraits, and by a couple of pictures, "No," and
" The Crown of Love," which Mr Ruskin, in his notes on
the Academy, dismissed as " sketches," though he admitted
that " The Crown of Love " was, in dramatic sentiment, the
chief canvas shown that season. But neither in 1875, nor
in 1876, when "Forbidden Fruit" and "Getting Better"
were exhibited, did Millais paint anything finer than his
portrait of " Miss Eveleen Tennant," an amazing display
of brilliant colour and strong tones, handled with great
fluency and with a kind of riotous enjoyment of the
chances that were afforded him by the characteristic
picturesqueness of his subject.
His masterpiece for 1877 was the "Yeoman of the
Guard," an even more riotous and gorgeous essay in strong
colour than his chief work of the year before. The scarlet
uniform with its lavish embroidery of black and gold, and
its picturesque fashion, was something that exactly suited
his fancy ; and he revelled in his struggle with the many
difficulties that such a technical problem presented to him.
But there is little sign in the picture that he found this
subject more than usually exacting. It is particularly
noteworthy for its consistent and thorough treatment, for
the sound judgment with which every detail both of the
colour and the design has been managed ; and it is not
less interesting on account of the sensitive and characteristic

A YEOMAN OF THE GUARD

YEAR BY YEAR— LATER WORKS 57
rendering of the worn old face of the model than as a
piece of still life painting of quite extraordinary force.
The year in which it was exhibited was one in which he was
unusually prolific ; for with it he showed, at the Academy,
his portrait of " The Earl of Shaftesbury " and a picture
" Yes " ; at the Grosvenor Gallery, " Stitch ! Stitch ! " and
portraits of "The Marchioness of Ormonde," "Countess
Grosvenor," and " Lady Beatrice Grosvenor " ; at the King
Street Gallery, his delightfully imagined "Effie Deans";
" Puss in Boots," at Mr Maclean's gallery ; and he painted,
besides, his portrait of Carlyle, and a three-quarter-length
picture of a girl to which he gave the title " Bright Eyes."
These were not exhibited at the time.
At the Grosvenor Gallery appeared, in 1878, "A Good
Resolve," a girl in a blue bodice and brown skirt, standing
with her hand on an open Bible, and " Twins," a portrait
group of the daughters of Mr T. R. Hoare; and at the
Academy " The Princes in the Tower," a composition that
has had a great success as an engraving ; " A Jersey Lily,"
and a portrait His " Bride of Lammermoor " was shown
separately, at the King Street Gallery. Of the works
completed in the following year, the best remembered is
" Cherry Ripe," the most widely popular of all his pictures
of children, and in some respects the daintiest and most
fascinating illustration that he ever gave of a class of art
production that requires particular delicacy and subtlety of
expression. To the Academy he sent portraits of "Mr
Gladstone," "Mrs S. H. Beddington," and "Mrs Arthur
Kennard," and another of " Mrs Stibbard " to the Grosvenor
Gallery. There, too, was hung next spring his painting of " Mrs
Jopling," an exquisite example of his most perfect and
accomplished art, quiet, reserved, and simple, but not want
ing in meaning, and curiously exact in its suggestion of the
charm that attaches to a gifted personality. The treatment
of the sensitive face, refined and feminine, and yet full of

58 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
decision, is so sure and judicious, so free from careless
idealisation or thoughtless mannerism, that it can scarcely
be too highly praised. The picture, altogether, is exceptional
in its manner, combining with rare skill the noblest qualities
of the artist's method with the best expression of his
capacity for close observation. It was one of several fine
things of the same class that he exhibited that year, con
temporaneous with the likeness of himself painted for the
Uffizi Gallery, and with the portraits of " The Right Hon.
John Bright," " Miss Catherine Muriel Cowell Stepney,"
" Luther Holden, P.R.C.S.," and " Miss Hermione
Schenley." All these, with a picture, called "Cuckoo,"
two children sitting in a wood, were at the Academy.
Indeed, during the first half of the eighties, portraits made
up the bulk of his contributions to the exhibitions at
Burlington House and the Grosvenor Gallery, while most
of his subject-pictures were shown at one or other of the
dealers' galleries. To the Academy he sent, in 1881, " The
Rev. John Caird, D.D.," "Bishop Fraser," "Sir J. D.
Astley," "Sir Gilbert Greenall," "Lord Wimborne," " The
Earl of Beaconsfield," and only one subject-picture, his
pretty " Cinderella " ; and to the Grosvenor Gallery his
exquisitely-handled portrait of " Mrs Perugini," whose face
appears in several of his earlier works, and another subject-
picture, "Sweetest Eyes were ever seen." In 1882 the
Academy had his "Cardinal Newman," "Sir Henry
Thompson," " Mrs James Stern," " Dorothy Thorpe," " Mrs
Richard Budgett," " D. Thwaites," and " H.R.H. The
Princess Marie of Edinburgh " ; in 1883 his splendid study
of "J. C. Hook, R.A.," "The Marquis of Salisbury," "T.
H. Ismay," and "Charles Waring," two fancy portraits,
" Love Birds," and " Forget-me-not," and a subject, " The
Grey Lady"; in 1884, "Sir Henry Irving," "Fleetwood
Wilson," " Miss Scott," and a large picture, " An Idyll,
1745"; and, in 1885, "Lady Peggy Primrose," "Simon
Fraser," "Orphans," and the important canvas, "The

THOMAS CARLYLE

By permission of the Fine A rt
Society , owners of the copyright

PRINCESS ELIZABETH IN PRISON
AT ST JAMES'S

MRS PERUGINI

YEAR BY YEAR— LATER WORKS 59
Ruling Passion," about which Mr Ruskin wrote at the
time that he had never seen a modern work that filled him
with more delight and admiration.
Meanwhile he had exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery,
" The Children of Octavius Moulton Barrett, Esq." and
"Mrs Garrow- Whitby," in 1882; "For the Squire" in
1883 ; "Lady Campbell," whom he had painted before as
Miss Nina Lehmann, and "The Marquess of Lome," in
1884; and, in 1885, "Miss Margaret Millais" and "The
Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone." The chief subject-pictures
that during this period went to dealers' galleries were " The
Princess Elizabeth," " Caller Herrin'," " The Captive," and
" Dropped from the Nest," shown by the Fine Art Society ;
" Pomona," and " Olivia," by Messrs Tooth ; " Little Miss
Muffett," " Perfect Bliss," " A Message from the Sea," and
"The Mistletoe Gatherer," by Mr Maclean; and "The
Waif," by Messrs Dowdeswell. The Fine Art Society also
exhibited, in 1881, his portrait of " Alfred, Lord Tennyson."
In 1886 a portrait of "T. O. Barlow, R.A." was at the
Academy, but his other pictures went elsewhere, "Bubbles"
to Messrs Tooth, and " Ruddier than the Cherry " and
" Portia " to Mr Maclean. The following year was a fairly
busy one, and examples of his work were seen in many
directions. The Academy had three pictures, " Mercy ; St
Bartholomew's Day," "Lilacs," and "The Nest," besides
portraits of " The Earl of Rosebery " and " The Marquis of
Harrington"; the Grosvenor, portraits of "Lord Esher"
and "Mrs Charles Stuart Wortley"; and Mr Maclean,
" Allegro," " Penseroso," and " Clarissa." The largest of these,
the " St Bartholomew's Day," is not to be reckoned as one
of his best pictures ; it is a little too obviously a costume
study. For the next five years his more important canvases
were nearly all landscapes. Most of them were exhibited
at the Academy, where " Murthly Moss " appeared in 1888 ;
" Murthly Water," and " The Old Garden," in 1889; "The

60 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
Moon is up and yet it is not Night," in 1890; "Lingering
Autumn," and "Glen Birnam," in 1891 ; and "Blow, Blow,
thou winter wind ! " and " Halcyon Weather," in 1892 ; but
he also sent his " Christmas Eve " to Mr Maclean's gallery
in 1888, and "Dew-Drenched Furze" to the New Gallery
in 1890. After 1892, however, he painted no more out-of-
door subjects, and occupied himself only with portraits and
occasional figure compositions of the type that he had
accustomed people to expect from him.
Besides his landscapes he contributed little to the
Academy between 1887 and 1891. "Murthly Moss"
was his sole picture in 1888; he had for 1889 a single
portrait, of "Mrs Paul Hardy"; and again, for 1890,
only the portrait of "The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone
and his Grandson." But at other galleries he was fairly
well represented : by "The Last Rose of Summer" (1888),
"Forlorn" (1888), and a "Portrait of a Lady" (1890), at
the New Gallery ; by portraits of " Sir Arthur Sullivan "
(1888), and "C. J. Wertheimer" (1888), and "Shelling
Peas" (1889), at the Grosvenor Gallery; and "Ducklings"
(1889), and "Afternoon Tea" (1890), at Mr Maclean's
gallery. The Academy, however, had all his work in
1891, portraits of "The Hon. Mrs Herbert Gibbs," "Mrs
Joseph Chamberlain," and "Dorothy, daughter of Mrs
Harry Lawson," as well as his two landscapes, and a
picture, "Grace." A small painting of a child, "The
Little Speedwell's Darling Blue," was there next year,
and " Sweet Emma Moreland," a young woman carrying
a basket, was at the New Gallery.
Again, in 1893, he was exhibiting only at Burlington
House, where he sent four pictures, " The Girlhood of St
Theresa," two studies of children, " Pensive," and " Merry,"
and his characteristic portrait of " John Hare," the admir
able actor. Then came a gap of a year in the sequence of
his appearances, and it was not till 1895 that his next
pictures were seen. Four of these were at the Academy,

ST STEPHEN

A DISCIPLE

YEAR BY YEAR— LATER WORKS 61
a portrait of " Ada, Daughter of Robert Rintoul Simon,
Esq.," and three compositions, " St Stephen," " A Disciple,"
and " Speak ! Speak ! " which was purchased by the
Chantrey Fund Trustees, and is now in the Tate Gallery.
Two others went to the New Gallery, " The Empty Cage,"
and " Time the Reaper," one of his few symbolical paint
ings, and full of pathetic suggestion as the work of an
artist whose career was then rapidly drawing to its close.
What remained to him was, indeed, but a brief spell of
existence. Before another spring had come round the
disease from which he was suffering had made so much
progress that there was little hope of prolonging his life
for more than a few months. But all the more, perhaps, on
this account he showed no desire to rest. The Academy
of 1896 contained five pictures by him, the chief of which,
" A Forerunner," illustrated rather the point of view of his
early days than that of his more assured middle period.
It was a reversion to the religious suggestion of the Pre-
Raphaelites, though in treatment it had all the vigour
of design and certainty of touch that came to him in
later years. Nor did his other canvases, portraits of " Sir
Richard Quain," "The Hon. John Neville Manners,"
"Stanley Leighton, M.P.," and "The Marchioness of
Tweeddale," imply any abandonment of his splendid con
fidence. All that was best in his art endured to the
very end ; and it was never his lot to lag superfluous
on the stage parodying in his decay the successes of his
maturity.

CHAPTER V
FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS
\ ItHTH all his definiteness of opinion and sincere belief
in the accuracy of his own judgment, it cannot be
said that Sir John Millais was ever afflicted with that vice
of mannerism which occasionally swamps the individuality
of the industrious and prolific artist. He was too keenly
alive to the varieties of nature, too earnest in his observa
tion of the life about him, to fall into the mechanical habit
of repeating himself. Moreover, the bent of his mind was
not in the direction of those intellectual speculations which
are apt to absorb the dreamer and to warp him away from
reality into fanciful conventions. He was robust, modern,
and practical, a man whose instinct was active rather than
contemplative ; and he might even be said to be wanting
in imagination, if by imagination is understood the capacity
to evolve things curious and unusual out of the inner con
sciousness. But if he lacked imagination in this sense, he more
than made up for the deficiency by the exquisite acute-
ness of his insight into natural facts, and by the depth of
his judgment about the essentials of art. He made no
mistakes through ignorance or want of proper prepara
tion ; and he never failed because he grudged the
preliminary thought needed to carry to success a great
undertaking. Indeed, the one thing that he always
preached was application, constant industry devoted to
the task of finding out how work should be done. Care
lessness he condemned ; but he had no love for that type
of performance which shows the trouble that the producer 62

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THE CAPTIVE

FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 63
has taken over it. He contended, justly, that it was the
duty of the artist to so master the executive details of his
profession that his work should impress the spectator by
its ready certainty rather than its conscientious toil.
This view of artistic responsibilities he expressed in an
essay, " Thoughts on our Art of To-day," which appeared
a few years ago in the Magazine of Art, and in one passage
he summed up what was really his whole creed as an execu
tant : " The commonest error into which a critic can fall
is the remark we so often hear that such and such an
artist's work is ' careless ' and ' would be better had more
labour been spent upon it.' As often as not this is wholly
untrue. As soon as the spectator can see that ' more
labour has been spent upon it ' he may be sure that the
picture is to that extent incomplete and unfinished, while
the look of freshness that is inseparable from a really
successful picture would of necessity be absent. If the
high finish of a picture is so apparent as immediately to
force itself upon the spectator, he may know that it is
not as it should be ; and, from the moment that the
artist feels his work is becoming a labour, he may de
pend upon it, it will be without freshness, and to that
extent without the merit of a true work of art. Work
should always look as though it had been done with
ease, however elaborate ; what we see should appear to
have been done without effort, whatever may be the
agonies beneath the surface." And in the same essay
he gave a hint of his own method : " Sometimes as I
paint I may find my work becoming laborious ; but as
soon as I detect any evidence of that labour I paint the
whole thing out without more ado."
The need to strive for the quality of freshness, in
technical expression, was, however, very far from being
the only thing he insisted upon. He had, as well, a
strong belief in the importance of a definitely independent
attitude with regaid to choice of pictorial motive, and

64 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
selection of suitable material. But beyond this he advo
cated special precautions against any narrowing of the
artist's practice by too close adherence to one kind of
picture. In his "Thoughts" he put this conviction into
words of considerable significance : " Individuality is not
all that should be looked to; a varied manner must be
cultivated as well. I believe that, however admirably he
may paint in a certain method, or however perfectly he
may render a certain class of subject, the artist should
not be content to adhere to a speciality of manner or
method. A fine style is good, but it is not everything —
it is not absolutely necessary."
Certainly Sir John carried out these principles in his
own production. He had many sides to his character
as an artist, and used his powers of observation with
splendid freedom. His popularity was gained not by
the reiteration of any one set of ideas, but by showing
himself equally capable in many forms of painting. In
his figure pictures he was by turns dramatic, romantic,
sternly realistic, and at times sentimental in a robust way ;
in his portraits he was incisive, direct, and accurate ; in
his landscapes precise, exact, and searchingly correct in
his rendering of what was before him ; and in his water-
colours and drawings in black and white , delightfully
facile and ingenious. He had no speciality, and no set
conviction that there was one particular thing he could
do better than anything else ; so that he never restrained
his love of variety or bound himself by limitations based
simply upon expediency.
In any classification of his works the first place must
necessarily be given to his figure-paintings and portraits.
Indeed, they make up the bulk of his achievement, and
represent the fullest growth of his capacity. The history
of his life is principally written in them. They show more
convincingly than anything else he did what manner of
man he was, and how his nature shaped itself through

By permission of the Fine A rt
Society ; owners of the copyright

DROPPED FROM THE NEST

By permission of Missrs
Dowdeswell &* Dowdeswells Ltd.

A WAIF

FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 65
many years of unremitting effort. The charm of his
personality distinguishes them all — a charm as evident
in the simpler and more limited subjects as in those
which made great demands upon his powers of invention
and contrivance. There was never any suggestion that
he did not honestly feel the motive with which he was
dealing, or that he was not perfectly convinced that
what he had chosen was worthy of record. If he failed,
it was because he had misapprehended the suitability
of his material, not because he had been trying to do
something outside the range of his belief.
Curiously, perhaps, his honesty and directness were
at the same time the source of what was best in his
pictures, and the cause of their chief weaknesses. Had
he not been so frank and wholesome- minded he could
never have arrived at that exquisite appreciation of
the daintiness of childhood to which he gave expression
in a great many of his most successful canvases, and
could never have gained, as he did, the hearts of all
classes of art lovers. Only a worshipper of children, with
the most absolute sympathy with their ways and habits,
could have painted pictures as persuasive as "Cherry
Ripe," "A Waif," "Caller Herrin'," "The Princess
Elizabeth';" ana* that long series of pretty studies, of
which "Perfect Bliss," "Dropped from the Nest,"
"Forbidden Fruit," and "Little Mrs Gamp," may be
quoted as types. Only a man with the happiest sense
of delicate shades of character could have commanded
the extraordinary popularity that came to him as a
result of his production of pictures such as these.
For instance, "Cherry Ripe," when it was issued as
a coloured plate by the proprietors of The Graphic
created a quite astonishing sensation. So great was the
anxiety of the admirers of the artist to obtain this re
production that an edition of 600,000 was exhausted in
a few days, without at all satisfying the demand. Nearly

66 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
double the number of copies could have been sold, for
the total of the orders received at The Graphic office
approached a million. That this unprecedented success
was due to the subtlety of the treatment of the. picture
is beyond question ; the little sitter is not represented
as playing a part in any drama comic or pathetic, she
is placed among no romantic surroundings, and with
no accessories that suggest any story. She is simply
her quaint little self, perfectly child-like, absolutely natural,
and without a touch of self-consciousness. She lacks the
hint of stately artificiality that marks the "Souvenir of
Velasquez " ; she makes no appeal for sympathy, like the
"Princess Elizabeth"; she is fascinating purely as a
pretty piece of nature recorded by a man who was
blessed with a temperament that never lost its youth
ful freshness.
What was a quality of inestimable value in work that
lent itself well to the assertion of all that was daintiest
and most refined in his conviction became now and then
a source of weakness when he tried to apply it to the
carrying out of more complicated themes. His drama at
times descended into an artlessness that would have been
feeble if it had not been redeemed by its indisputable
sincerity. An example of this is afforded in "Peace
Concluded, 1856," the story of which is explained by
the toy animals, taken from a Noah's ark, which are
being grouped by a child upon the knee of the wounded
officer who is the central figure in the picture ; and there
is something of the same imperfection of thought in such
compositions as " The Romans leaving Britain," and
" Mercy ! St Bartholomew's Day." They are to be
reckoned among his failures because in interpreting
them he has been satisfied to be obvious and matter-
of-fact, and has not risen to the greater possibilities pre
sented by exacting subjects ; just as in his " Joan of
Arc" he has missed the romantic side of his heroine,

THE VALE OF REST

MERCY— ST BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY

FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 67
and has made her merely an ordinary young woman in
fancy dress.
Yet there are many of his canvases which prove that he
had a very sound judgment of dramatic necessities, and
that he could reach the greater heights of subject-painting.
He has left on record his opinion that " the best painter
that ever lived never entirely succeeded more than four or
five times ; that is to say, no artist ever painted more
than four or five masterpieces, however high his general
average may have been ; for such success depends upon
the coincidence, not only of genius and inspiration, but of
health and mood and a hundred other mysterious con
tingencies." Applying this dictum to his own practice,
it can certainly be said that he enjoyed this coincidence
in full measure, and that the four or five great occasions
came to him as they have to other masters. Indeed, it
would be difficult to limit his masterpieces so narrowly,
especially if the whole range of his production is taken
into account.
Among his subject-pictures, at all events, there are
quite half-a-dozen, which, by their wonderful vitality,
their deep significance, and force of expression, make
good a claim to the possession of the finest kind of
mastery. " The Vale of Rest," " The North - West
Passage," " The Order of Release," " The Ruling Passion,"
"The Boyhood of Raleigh," and perhaps "Effie Deans,"
are all canvases in which the " mysterious contingencies "
have been in perfect agreement. They show that he
could grasp with all possible firmness, and state with
unflinching decision, motives that called for great mental
exertion. Their qualities are those that come from a
minute insight, not only into details of character, but
also into the principles which govern the dramatic side
of pictorial art. No false note spoils the harmony ol
these compositions, no touch of uncertainty or divided
opinion ; they are confident and assured, and their mean-

68 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
ing is not to be questioned. They express the thoughts
of a man who, with all his straightforwardness and
simplicity, could now and then look beneath the surface
and work out problems far more profound than it was
his every-day habit to investigate.
Even in his less monumental works, in those with which
he made up his high general average, he could show a
sterling sense of artistic responsibility. Indeed, what he
chose to do was done, as a rule, with so much consistency
and so much logic that the result rarely suggested any
inquiry as to the sufficiency of the motive. However
slight the amount of his inspiration, the picture he pro
duced was usually satisfying, and, within its limitations,
admirably complete. It might not cause any deep re
flection ; it might, like "Cherry Ripe," "The Captive,"
" Cinderella," and many others of the same class, aim at
nothing more than the reproduction of a personality ; or it
might have only a thread of story binding together the
various actors in the scene represented. But it was hardly
ever to be passed by without attention or to be disregarded
as the performance of an artist who had not solidly con
vinced himself before he offered to other people the proofs
of his mental application.
His romance, especially, had this merit of being well
thought out. It was never complicated by excess of
details, and was strict in its adherence to the main facts
of the story, without irrelevant matter introduced to com
plete picturesquely an imperfect conception. " The Knight
Errant " is a very good example of his method of dealing
with an incident evolved from his own fancy ; and "Victory,
O Lord ! " is equally characteristic as an instance of the
power with which he could seize upon the salient points of
a subject suggested to him by written history. Many of
his finer paintings were illustrative, records of the impres
sions made upon him by things he had read, and expres
sions of the instinct that brought him throughout his

THE ESCAPE OF A HERETIC

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FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 69
life such success as a draughtsman in black and white ;
but they were only occasionally direct illustrations of
particular passages from books. More often what he
gave was his view of what might have happened, rather
than a plain reproduction in paint of what was already
fixed in words.
He preferred to base himself more upon the spirit than
the letter of a story, to find a new reading for himself, and
to treat it with a considerable degree of independence.
In " The Princes in the Tower " he followed none of the
accepted versions, and in " Effie Deans " he made a subject
out of the slightest possible suggestion in the text of the
romance ; yet both pictures show that peculiar air of con
viction which results from a perfect understanding of what
is essential for the proper application of dramatic material.
In these, as in almost all his renderings of incident, appears
his habit of attacking not the climax of the story, but
rather one of its earlier stages, an intermediate moment
when the action is still in progress and the final result is
suggested rather than clearly foreshadowed. This habit
was always strong upon him. It gave their particular
interest to such early works as " The Huguenot," " The
Black Brunswicker," "The Proscribed Royalist," and
"The Escape of a Heretic," just as much as it did to
later pictures like " The Girlhood of St Theresa," or
"Speak! Speak!"; and by introducing a touch of specu
lation into the record of his thoughts he enhanced the
fascination which was never wanting in his sturdy in
ventions. Indeed, there was in every branch of his figure-painting
some sufficient reason for his popularity, some distinct
attractiveness of mental quality to add convincingly to
the impression created by his superlative command over
technicalities. He could be tender, dainty, and refined
in his studies of children ; serious and solemn in his
symbolical compositions ; pathetic, vigorous, and passion-

70 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
ate by turns in his subject-pictures ; and through all
ran a vein of sentiment that was always wholesome,
clean, and intelligible. He never affected to be influenced
by feelings that were not honestly natural to him, nor
did he pretend to represent anything that he did not
believe in sincerely and without question. What he
painted was invariably what he felt at the moment ; and,
whether it was a masterpiece, like " The North - West
Passage," or a comparative failure, like "Peace Con
cluded," it expressed simply the appeal that the subject
had made to him ; and his response to this appeal was
always unconventional and definite.
He trusted in the same way to a personal impression of
his sitter when he set himself to paint a portrait. He had
no desire to be either coarsely material or unduly fanciful
in his representation of modern humanity, and he had no
fixed manner of treating all sorts of types. There was in
this most important section of his art no pretence that he
wished to create anything, or even to build up a tradition
as to the way in which the human subject should be
rendered. What he wanted was to show that he under
stood the individuality of the man or woman before him,
and that his understanding had helped him to make clear
to others the special idiosyncrasies that separated that man
or woman from the ordinary crowd. Portraiture to him
was a matter of observation, of receptiveness to suggestion,
and acceptance of what was visible, rather than an artistic
process which enabled him to give free scope to his in
ventive instincts.
This view of his responsibilities was partly the outcome
of his temperament, partly a result of the strict self-educa
tion that he had gone through in his younger days. To
imitate what he had closely examined, and to state plainly
what he had decided to be right, had become the main
principles of his practice, and nowhere did they control
him so stringently as in his portraits. But they operated

THE RIGHT HON.
W. E. GLADSTONE

THE RIGHT HON.
THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD

FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 71
chiefly in enabling him to differentiate between the many
personalities that during the latter half of his life were
presented to him for pictorial record. His likenesses
were always vitally exact, and each one had the power
to claim attention by its vivid reproduction of the living
subject. Yet they were never wanting in distinctive
quality of style, and never verged upon the flippant
familiarity which is the vice of certain modern schools.
Dignity, perhaps in some instances coldness, of aspect
is a feature of his canvases. No picturesque attitudes, no
appeal to the onlooker, no smiling self-advertisement, were
permitted to the people he represented. They were made
to live by the magic of his brush, but they had to live up
to his high ideal of behaviour, and to comport themselves
with proper restraint.
It is very interesting to see how he managed to secure
invariably this atmosphere of distinction without losing
either individuality or subtlety of characterisation. Facial
expression of the most obvious sort he did not attempt.
He painted the features preferably in repose, unaltered
by any emotion, and moved by nothing in the nature of
momentary thought. This normal composure, however,
was not stolid quiescence, the somnolent blankness that
obliterates character and hides the feelings behind a mask ;
it was the restfulness of the active and intelligent mind,
reserved and reflective in the intervals between moments
of intellectual exertion. It suggested the quiet dignity
of habitual impartiality, and by its freedom from particular
assertion summarised with comprehensive truth all the
nobler attributes of the person depicted.
That this preference for repose in representation did
not lead the artist into a dry convention, or into any
disregard of the essential points of difference between
people, is very evident if a comparison is made of
his chief portraits. Beneath their reserve appears a
wonderful variety of manner, and a superb power of

72 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
interpretation. They are studied, exact, and intensely
real, records of acute analysis applied with thorough dis
crimination, and of masterly mechanism used with rare
control. No perfunctory labour appears in them, and
their value is diminished by no slurring over of the
little things which help to define the more intimate
characteristics of the modern man.
As a study in subtleties it is instructive to examine
such a portrait as that of Mr John Hare, and to note
with what skill the mobile features of the nervous,
animated face are rendered, and how the vivacity of
the actor is suggested by refinement of modelling and
sensitiveness of drawing. There is, too, a valuable
illustration of Sir John's methods to be obtained by
comparing with this portrait another of an equally
eminent member of the same profession. Facially there
is little in common between Mr Hare and Sir Henry
Irving, but the artist in painting them has made the
difference not merely one of feature. He has marked
accurately and with perfect comprehension the divergence
between the exquisite manipulator of dramatic detail who
rejoices in high finish and infinite exactness of impersona
tion, and the deep thinker whose life has been devoted to
the working out of those great artistic problems which the
modern theatre manager has to face.
Another instance of his faculty for realising the mental
character of his sitter is afforded by the marvellous power
of the 1885 portrait of Mr Gladstone, a supremely
accomplished record of a complex personality in which
were blended indomitable will, militant energy, and
stern decision, with a strain of almost fanatical enthusi
asm and credulity. To contrast with it the sphinx-like
and inscrutable head of Lord Salisbury, the tender dreamy
and poetic face of Mr Hook, with the artistic temperament
proclaimed in every line, the "Thomas Carlyle," soured
and cynical, and at war with existence, or the sad, worn,

THE MOST HON.
THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY, K.G.

MR JOHN HARE

SIR HENRY IRVING

FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 73
and wearied features of Lord Beaconsfield, painted during
the last days of that statesman's life, is to review the whole
range of possibilities that were grasped by an artist who
was endowed with insight such as only the greatest masters
can be said to possess, and with a responsiveness of hand
to eye that was well-nigh perfect.
Perhaps he was less analytical and less discriminating in
his pictures of women. They seemed to appeal to him
less than men did as subjects for psychological study.
What he preferred to dwell upon were the physical charms
of femininity, beauty of face and form, elegance of carriage,
and that rounded fulness of development that argues
perfect wholesomeness of body and mind. The stateliness
of the card-players in " Hearts are Trumps," the air of
high breeding and conscious power which distinguishes the
portrait of the Duchess of Westminster, and the more
matronly splendour of " Mrs Bischoffsheim," mark the
chief variations in his manner of painting womankind ;
occasionally only did he diverge into more detailed
character, as in " Miss Eveleen Tennant," " Mrs Jopling,"
and " Mrs Perugini " ; but as a rule he was content to treat
the freshness and brilliant vitality of his feminine sitters,
and to leave untouched their possibilities of passion or
strong emotion. His men were full of vigorous aspirations,
restrained for the moment yet near the surface and ready
at any moment to break into activity ; but his women
were serene and unmoved, prepared, perhaps, for conquest,
but wrapped in a reserve that would not allow them to
make the first advances.
It is curious that, in his portrait of himself, he should
have departed to some extent from his usual habit with
regard to the masculine sitter, and should have been com
paratively unobservant of his own character. He painted
himself with a certain degree of idealisation, minimising the
physical force which was the great attraction of his face,
and attempting a kind of dreamy abstraction that was

74 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
scarcely true. It may be that he wished to express that
view of himself which he put into words with regard to the
picture of him that Frank Holl produced in 1886. The
comment made by Millais on this work was, " I know I
look a bit of a farmer ; but then I am also a bit of a poet.
And Holl has made me all farmer and no poet." The
Uffizi Gallery portrait is certainly that of a poet, unduly
contemplative, and without much hint of that splendid
tenacity which made Millais so striking a figure in the
record of the British School. Still, even if it scarcely
suggests the man we knew, it is by its very unlikeness to
the general run of his portraits specially interesting as a
revelation of his estimate of himself; and as a piece of
painting it is notably important.
About his technical methods there is comparatively
little to be said. He was not a worker who concerned
himself very deeply over devices of execution, or cared to
codify his system of painting in accordance with scientific
principles. He drew well, and handled his materials with
the sureness and confidence that came from complete know
ledge of what he wanted to do. His chief desfre, as has
been already stated, was to retain in pictures that had
really cost him deep thought and prolonged labour an
aspect of spontaneity and freshness ; to be direct in state
ment and simple in expression. He had a well-founded
belief that the finest art was that in which the meaning of
the artist was to be realised with the least amount of
seeking and with as little inquiry as possible about his
intentions. Consequently, he strove all his life to master
the intricacies of his craft, so that no hesitation on his part
might make his meaning vague or indefinite. Speed he
always had. Even in the apparently laborious period of his
Pre-Raphaelite performance he could, and did, paint with
amazing facility — the head of Ferdinand, in "Ferdinand
lured by Ariel," was, for instance, completed in five hours
— and as years went on his certainty became even more

MRS JOPLING

FIGURE PICTURES AND PORTRAITS 75
indisputable. " Cherry Ripe " was painted in a week, " The
Last Rose of Summer " in not more than four days, and
for many of his portraits half-a-dozen sittings sufficed to
give him all that was necessary for the achievement of a
masterpiece. His quickness of apprehension and accuracy
of vision helped him to a prompt decision as to choice of
material ; and when his direction was once fixed, his inex
haustible energy carried him easily through the work of
production. Nature had well equipped him for his pro
fession, and wisely he followed the lines she had laid down.

CHAPTER VI
LANDSCAPE ART
~\ 1 7"HAT is exactly the estimate that can be formed of the
value of the contributions made by Sir John Millais to
the landscape art of this century depends, to a very con
siderable extent, upon the view that the inquirer may hold
concerning the manner in which out-of-door subjects
should be attacked. Landscape painting is largely a
matter of personal feeling, and is far less than any other
form of artistic practice amenable to rules and regula
tions. The particular individuality of the painter, his
special preferences and susceptibilities, play the chief part
both in his choice of material and in his decision as to
the shaping of it upon canvas ; and the willingness of
art lovers to accept his statements without reservation or
question is greatly affected by the impressionability of
these observers to nature's suggestions. Many people
have unconsciously strong convictions about the aspects
of the world about them, convictions based not upon
reason, but arising rather from association and habit. If
they happen to find in any painter a kindred spirit who
thinks and sees as they do, they are apt to exalt him,
often unduly, simply because they understand what he
has to say ; and they are inclined to underrate the man,
equally convinced, whose instincts have led him in a
different direction.
The unquestionable popularity that Millais gained by
his excursions into landscape was certainly due to the
fact that his observation was of the ordinary and every
day kind. He was a student of nature, not an imaginative 16

CHILL OCTOBER

LANDSCAPE ART 77
interpreter of what she presented. He dealt with facts !
and left fancies almost entirely alone. In the series of
canvases that began with " Chill October " and ended with
"Halcyon Weather" there was infinite industry, marvellous
accuracy, perfect veracity of record, but little effort to be
anything but absolutely exact in his statement of what he
saw. He proved completely the dictum of Mr Ruskin,
quoted at length in the first chapter, that he " sees every
thing, small and large, with almost the same clearness ;
mountains and grasshoppers alike ; the leaves on the
branches ; the veins in the pebbles, the bubbles in the
stream ; but he can remember nothing and invent nothing.
Patiently he sets himself to his mighty task ; abandoning
at once all thoughts of seizing transient effects, or giving
general impressions of that which his eyes present to him
in microscopical dissection, he chooses some small portion
out of the infinite scene, and calculates with courage the
number of weeks which must elapse before he can do
justice to the intensity of his perceptions, or the fulness
of matter in his subject."
But this love of "microscopical dissection" is exactly
that which is strongest in the ordinary man. To admire
the subtle poetry of Corot, the splendid dignity of
Constable, or the illimitable imagination of Turner, is
given to few minds, and implies either the possession of
special faculties or the development of an exceptional
taste. The general run of mankind cares little about
intellectual abstractions, and prefers what is clear and
tangible. So the artist who paints realities with power
and decision is surer of wide acceptance than he who
dreams exquisitely and records his dreams with fastidious
refinement. He finds many people who neither under
stand nor appreciate the glories of infinite space, people
with imagination insufficient to build mental images upon
suggestions from which detail is eliminated, and in which
nothing is offered but great fundamental principles; and

78 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
if his own inclinations lie in the direction of analysis of
little things rather than comprehension of the whole, of
which they form part, he soon discovers that by giving
way to his instincts he can secure an amount of approval
that would never be within his reach if he strove to enlarge
his scope and acquire that wider view which could come to
him only by a strenuous process of special self-education.
It cannot be said that Millais ever did make this effort
to extend the limits of his observation of nature ; it may,
indeed, be doubted whether he even felt the necessity for
it. His conviction was so strong, and his excusable con
fidence in his own judgment was so complete, that there
was probably in his mind no hesitation about following
a congenial course. Moreover, it is easy to believe that
the acclamation with which his first essays in pure land
scape were received confirmed him in the resolve to paint
what was obviously to the taste of a considerable section
of the public. There was no question then of fighting for
recognition against an almost overpowering weight of
opposition. He had, before 1871, when "Chill October"
appeared, won his way to the front rank of popular
favourites, and any new effort he made was sure of being
treated with respect. He had proved that his capacity
was great enough to justify a general faith in the value
of his artistic achievement, and that his new departures
would probably be not less significant and authoritative
than those more familiar attempts by which his reputation
had been established.
Certainly, if the rather futile speculation as to what he
might have done in landscape, if his temperament had
been other than it was, is abandoned, it must be admitted
that within his limitations he was extraordinarily able. His
amazing patience and his surprising quickness of vision,
enabled him to grasp with absolute accuracy the plain facts
of nature, and his command of brushwork ensured a rare
perfection in his pictorial expression of the matter that he

By permission of the
Corporation of Birmingham

THE BLIND GIRL

LANDSCAPE ART 79
had selected for representation. When he chose a " small
portion out of the infinite scene," as the subject for his
picture, he had no idea of evading difficulties, nor had he
any intention of avoiding that responsibility as an artist,
the acceptance of which was the controlling principle of
his life. In landscape, he was as minutely attentive, as
surely certain of himself, as he ever was in his figure work.
Nothing was implied, or left in sketchy incompleteness,
because his patience had failed him before he had realised
the complicated fulness of his subject. He spared himself
no toil to arrive at what seemed to him to be the perfec
tion of nature, and his courage was proof against every
demand. As a necessary consequence, however, of this manner
of working, he never could be ranked among the in
spired painters of the open air, nor could he ever be said
to have dealt exhaustively with the problems presented
by natural phenomena. He remained untouched by the
subtleties of atmospheric effect, by the varieties of
momentary illumination, or by the fleeting glories of
aerial colour, which provide the student of nature's devices
with the chief incentive to artistic effort. He was always
too much concerned with the things at his feet, with
matter that he could dissect and investigate, to give much
thought to the broad and comprehensive scheme of which
these things formed part. Whatever he arrived at in the
way of a record of a natural effect was reached, not so
much by thorough understanding of the effect as a whole,
as by an amazingly acute interpretation of the influence
exercised by it upon the details upon which his eyes were
fixed. An excellent instance of this is afforded in " The Blind
Girl," where he has given little enough attention to the
grandeur of the passing storm-clouds, and has concentrated
the whole of his energies upon the rendering, with supreme
fidelity, of dripping weeds and a drenched hill-side, lighted

80 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
by the rays of the setting sun. As a record of microscopic
insight, the picture is superlatively successful ; it could
hardly be more exact, or more closely reasoned out ; but,
as a representation of Nature in one of her most impres
sive moods, it is ineffectual and unconvincing. So, too, his
most popular landscape, " Chill October," falls short of
greatness, because it is too plainly studied bit by bit, and
part by part, and built up precisely by the careful putting
in place of material collected for the pictorial purpose. It
holds together, not because it has one great dominating
intention, but because its construction is so ingenious, and
its mechanism so workmanlike, that no single detail can
be criticised as out of relation to the rest. It can hardly
be called learned in design, nor can it be said to have any
conspicuous dignity of style ; yet the knowledge of form,
the intimate observation of the growth of riverside
vegetation, and the appreciation of autumnal colouring,
which were turned to account by the artist in his treatment
of the subject, make the canvas prominent among the
greatest nature studies of modern times. In its particular
qualities of truth and industry, it is, indeed, so notable
that there is no difficulty in accepting it as a piece of rare
accomplishment, beyond all comparison with what other
painters have attempted in the same direction.
There is in existence a note written in 1882 by the
artist — it is pasted on to the back of the canvas — which is
not only an explanation of the method pursued by him in
painting this picture, but also gives an idea of the spirit in
which he attacked all his work in the open air. " ' Chill
October' was painted from a backwater of the Tay just
below Kinfauns, near Perth. The scene, simple as it is,
had impressed me for years before I painted it. The
traveller between Perth and Dundee passes the spot where
I stood. Danger on either side — the tide, which once
carried away my platform, and the trains which threatened
to blow my work into the river. I chose the subject for the

THE OLD GARDEN

LANDSCAPE ART 81
sentiment it always conveyed to my mind, and I am happy
to think that the transcript touched the public in a like
manner, although many of my friends at the time were at
a loss to understand what I saw to paint in such a scene.
I made no sketch for it, but painted every touch from
nature, on the canvas itself, under irritating trials of wind
and rain. The only studio-work was in connection with
the effect."
This, indeed, expresses the whole of his point of view
with reference to the choice and treatment of the material
which he selected for his landscapes. The sentiment of
the scene appealed to him in the first place, and induced
him to fix upon this or that particular subject ; but when
he had decided that the subject was worthy of attention
his anxiety was to reproduce it in absolute portraiture, to
put in everything that with the closest search he could
discover, and to leave out none of the little details that the
intensity of his perceptions enabled him to detect. It was
an enlargement of the same idea that governed him in his
Pre-Raphaelite days, when he painted every leaf in the
background of the " Ophelia," the tangle of the woodland
undergrowth in the " Proscribed Royalist," or the weather
stains and the little patches of moss and lichen on the
wall against which his figures were set in the " Huguenot " ;
a development of that sincere love of realism on which his
artistic creed was based. Beyond the limits of actuality
he never strayed ; and at their worst his landscapes had a
tendency to show a little too plainly how little of genuine
inspiration entered into their composition.
One consequence of his habit of reflecting simply what
he could keep before him for the period necessary for the
painstaking working out of his canvases, was that he rarely
depicted any other season of the year than autumn or
early winter. At other times he was busy in his London
studio, too fully occupied to spare the days or weeks that
he required for painting a landscape as he held it should
F

82 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
be painted. Almost his only representation of the spring
was seen in "Apple Blossoms," which belongs to a date
before his powers as a portrait painter had been recognised,
and before the demands made upon him by a succession
of sitters had limited his opportunities for country excur
sions. During the latter half of his life, however, he made
a practice of spending the autumn months in Scotland, and
it was there that he was able to give way to that love of
nature which was so strong in him — as he once expressed
it : "I do so delight in painting landscapes, so much more
than portraiture ! . . . . You can so completely please
yourself in landscape : you have only yourself to
satisfy." To these autumns in Scotland was due the production
of such canvases as " Flowing to the River," " Flowing to
the Sea," and " The Sound of Many Waters," all painted
on the Tay or its tributaries ; " Scotch Firs," " Winter
Fuel," " Murthly Moss," " Murthly Water," and " Urquhart
Castle" ; and "Over the Hills and Far Away," "The Old
Garden," and " The Fringe of the Moor," in each of which
is seen the most ample evidence of his enthusiastic study
and of his marvellous accuracy in the rendering of the
results of certain conditions of weather and of the changes
produced in the face of the country by the march of the
seasons. Only here and there in the whole series of his
landscapes can one be noted which hints at any desire to
emphasise the impression made upon him by some passing
subtlety of atmosphere, or by some momentary change of
effect ; and only occasionally can he be said to have reverted
to the poetry which was so definitely felt in such earlier
pictures as "Autumn Leaves," "Sir Isumbras," or "The
Vale of Rest." In " The Old Garden," he treated acutely
and appreciatively the quiet stillness of autumn twilight,
the repose of evening in those later months of the year
when the first touches of winter frost give warning of the
rigours to come ; and in " The Moon is up and yet it is

LANDSCAPE ART 83
not Night," he found a similar motive worthy of earnest
analysis. Perhaps the deepest feeling of which he was capable
appeared in the few pictures that he painted of actual
winter. In his renderings of snow he displayed a degree
of vigour that was peculiarly dramatic and admirably in
keeping with the storm and stress of the winter season.
Unluckily, this particular aspect of nature was one that he
rarely attempted. In his " Mistletoe Gatherer," produced
in 1884, he made his first experiment in this direction ; but
he is said to have had doubts, on technical grounds,
whether white pigments would have sufficient permanency
to justify their almost exclusive use in a large picture, and
so he did not repeat the experiment until four years later
when these doubts had been removed by the testimony of
a number of his professional brethren. Then he painted
" Christmas Eve," a view of Murthly Castle by sunset with
snow lying deep upon its terraces ; and followed, in 1891,
with " Glen Birnam," an admirably designed and powerfully
expressed winter landscape ; and, in 1892, with " Blow, blow,
thou Winter Wind," one of the most convincing statements
of the turmoil of a biting December gale that modern art
can show.
But still, even if it is possible to select from among the
landscapes which Millais painted a few that express the
more profound and abstract meanings of nature, the
majority of them must be reckoned rather as astonishingly
vivid representations of her superficial features than as
inspirations based upon the suggestions with which she is
so lavish. They belong to what Mr Ruskin called the
Natural History class, when, in his 1875 Academy Notes,
he somewhat fiercely attacked " The Fringe of the Moor,"
and their most evident merit is their unflinching naturalism.
How far their truth can be described, in the words of the
great critic, as "essential, though rude and apparently
motiveless veracity," it is not quite easy to say; their

84 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
exact position among the pictures of this century must
always be a matter of opinion. It is possible, from one
standpoint, to deny to them any of the spirit by which
landscape in the largest sense should be dignified, and it is
equally possible to go to the other extreme and to hail
them as revelations of all that is most learned and
exhaustive in the way of nature study ; the attitude of the
observer must necessarily depend almost entirely upon the
way in which nature appeals to him, and upon whatever
preference he may have for one manner of treatment over
another. At least there cannot be argued against the artist that
his landscape art lacked in the smallest degree either
knowledge or industry. His comment on his practice,
— " I have often been laboured, but, whatever I am,
I am never careless " — applies as fully to his out-of-door
work as to his figure-pictures. No one but a devoted
and scientific craftsman could have painted so exactly
the swirl and movement of water as he has done in " A
Flood," or " The Sound of Many Waters," or could have
given so perfectly the character of living vegetation as he
has in the foreground of " Chill October," and in the leafy
fringe that overhangs the pool in " Halcyon Weather " ;
and only a draughtsman of infinite conscience could have
suggested with such absolute economy of labour the extent
of aerial space which is so fascinating in his drawing of
"Orley Farm." These things prove that landscape was
not with him a recreation, the occupation of his leisure
moments when he wished to lay aside the weightier
responsibilities of his profession and amuse himself with
something slighter and less absorbing. He only altered
his focus when he got out-of-doors ; there was no change
in the minuteness of his observation.
If anything in the way of attempted definition is
desirable, it may perhaps be said of him that he looked at
open-air nature with the eyes of the portrait painter, and

By permission of Arthur Lucas,
publisher of the large Mezzotint Engraving

A FLOOD

LANDSCAPE ART 85
studied her features as he did those of the sitter posed
before him in his studio. He searched her face for the
little lines and modellings by which her character was
marked, and he considered every detail that seemed to
him to define her personality. He concentrated himself,
in fact, chiefly upon the small things, and forgot meanwhile
to note the largeness of the general scheme in which these
trifles played but minor parts. But his concentration was
without pedantry, and his love of detail without pettiness.
Both were essential elements in his organisation, and they
were inspired by that single-minded simplicity which was
at all times his most persuasive attribute.

CHAPTER VII
BLACK AND WHITE WORK
TT has been well said that if Millais had never devoted
himself to the painting of oil pictures, but had given
his life entirely to the work of book illustration, his
position among the chief leaders of the British School
would still have been indisputable, and his magnificent
ability would have been amply demonstrated. There is,
indeed, a great deal of truth in this contention. Although
the world would have been the poorer for the loss of his
masterly essays in brushwork, and of his wonderful exer
cises in the arrangement of strong colour, it would have
possessed extremely significant evidence of the reality of
his artistic judgment, and of the adaptability of his in
ventive powers. In his black and white work he showed
frequently a side of his capacity that appeared in his paint
ing only on great occasions, a sense of dramatic exigencies,
a feeling for illustrative meanings, far beyond what was
suggested by the general run of his pictures. As an
interpreter of the fancies of other men he was exceptionally
intelligent, with a memorable grasp of the salient points
of the story and a remarkable facility in summarising
essentials. He was afraid of nothing in the way of a
subject, and spared no labour to make his drawings
completely expressive.
His love of black and white was indeed a genuine
one. Illustration was not to him, as it so often is with
other men, a mere expedient, resorted to because an
unappreciative public refused to recognise the merit and
importance of his paintings, and abandoned gladly as
86

From Tennyson's Poems 1857

THE SISTERS

's Poems 1857

MARIANA

BLACK AND WHITE WORK 87
soon as he found he could make a sufficient income
without it. On the contrary, he welcomed the oppor
tunities with which this branch of art practice pro
vided him, and regarded them as of the highest value.
For more than twenty years he was a prolific illustrator,
constantly busy with drawings that were reproduced in
all kinds of books and magazines ; and even in his later
life occasional examples appeared to prove that his hand
had not lost its cunning and that his interest in this type
of work was undiminished.
How deeply he felt about this particular subject is,
perhaps, best proved by his constant advocacy, within
and without the Academy, of the claims of illustrative
draughtsmen to official recognition. Before the Royal
Commission on the Academy he strenuously urged that
workers in black and white should be declared eligible
for election to membership of that institution as draughts
men purely, instead of being required to disguise them
selves as picture painters before they could hope for
admission ; and his pleading then expressed a conviction
which remained strong in him till his death. Mr Spiel
mann, in his book, " Millais and his Works," quotes a
remark made by the artist, as President of the Academy,
that if he had lived he would have done his utmost to
persuade his fellow-members at Burlington House to
adopt his view and to enlarge the narrow Academic
borders so as to include the followers of a branch of art
which is without an equal in its hold on the public, and
of the greatest importance as a means of encouraging a
true taste in aesthetics. He spoke with real authority
on a matter that, both by inclination and association, he
was fully qualified to discuss. His experience of illus
trative drawing, and his acquaintance with the history
of its development, were both peculiarly intimate; and
he knew exactly what were the possibilities of influence
possessed by the craft.

88 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
Indeed, it may fairly be argued that he was not less
influential in laying the foundations of the great modern
school of illustrators than he was in leading the splendid
renascence of pictorial effort which has, in less than half-
a-century, raised British art from a moribund state to a
condition of vitality that has hardly been equalled at any
previous epoch in its history. Among the draughtsmen
of the sixties, among the men whom present-day critics
place in the front rank of the world's workers in black
and white, Millais stands out as the acknowledged chief.
He was as plainly their champion, as he was the domin
ating and militant spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite revolt ;
always the first in every movement that promised to
increase the opportunities open to the artists or to improve
the conditions under which their productions could be
presented to the public. It was largely in response to
his demand that those changes were made in the process
of wood engraving by which drawing on the block was
freed from undesirable limitations, and the restrictions
under which illustrators had previously suffered were
removed ; so that, indirectly, he may be said to have
created the facilities which were enjoyed by the younger
draughtsmen who followed in his footsteps.
The company which he led between 1850 and 1880, by
the force both of example and precept, was one of rare
brilliancy. It included not only his own immediate con
temporaries and friends, Holman Hunt, and Rossetti, but
many younger men, who year by year attached themselves
to it and carried on, each in his own way, the principles
of working which Millais convincingly expounded. A
complete list would comprise an extraordinary number of
names that are familiar to every student of modern art,
Fred Walker, Pinwell, Houghton, J. W. North, Sandys,
Charles Keene, Du Maurier, Poynter, to quote a few only
of the most prominent, and would serve well as a record
of a great revival. That he should have kept his place at

From Tennyson's Poems t8S7

LOCKSLEY HALL

FronCfTennyson s Poems 1857

DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR

BLACK AND WHITE WORK 89
the head of them all, not simply by virtue of his seniority,
but essentially by his indisputable power, both of hand and
mind, is one of the most emphatic pieces of evidence that
could be adduced to prove the importance of his inter
vention in illustrative art. It justifies absolutely, if any
justification were necessary, the present estimate of his
superiority over the greater number of the draughtsmen of
this century.
Very early in his life Millais showed signs of that
capacity to express much with a few happy touches, which
was constantly exemplified in the long series of his draw
ings for reproduction. Even as a child his random sketches
were full of character, and yet direct and easy in their
manner of expression ; and, as he grew up, and gained more
and more command over methods, he amplified the signi
ficance of his style without losing any of its straightforward
directness. Knowledge of technical refinements freed his
hand and opened up to him wider possibilities of expres
sion, but it did not lead him to make any kind of display
of mere cleverness at the expense of the nobler qualities of
design. The idea by which he was always controlled was
to strive for fidelity of interpretation, for that manner of
treating his subject which would put its point beyond
all doubt, and leave no room for dispute about the
meaning of the incident chosen for illustration. He
attempted no assertion of his own special preferences for
any particular pictorial manner, but kept himself in
harmony with the story that he had to handle, and put
the resources of his art frankly at the disposal of the writer
whose word-pictures he had to render in black and white.
As an example of his adaptability, even at the outset of
his career as an artist, the drawing of "The Battle of
Stirling," which belongs to Lady Dilke, is worth attention.
Its extraordinary vivacity and strength, both of composi
tion and draughtsmanship, would seem to be the outcome
of careful preparation and prolonged thought ; and yet the

90 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
history of its production proves it to have been a piece of
momentary inspiration, an illustration of a subject suddenly
suggested and carried out on the spot The date of the
drawing is about 1849, when Millais was staying at Shotover
House making studies for his picture of " Ferdinand and
Ariel." One evening he was amusing a party of children,
of whom Lady Dilke was one, by sketching various subjects
that they chose ; and it was in response to a request from
her for an illustration of the Battle of Stirling that this
drawing was executed. A moment's consideration, and a
glance at a book of military costumes, which was beside
him on the table, sufficed by way of preparation, and the
sketch, with all its vigorous movement and happy sugges
tion of the turmoil of battle, was promptly completed and
handed over to the child, who carried it home in triumph.
To these early years, when the Pre-Raphaelite movement
was in the first flush of its enthusiastic activity, belong
many wonderful drawings full of minute detail and con
ceived with infinite ingenuity, careful compositions record
ing subjects chosen from history or from the poems and
romances to which he devoted constant study. The
methods of execution followed by the artist in making
these designs were very varied. Sometimes he used pencil,
sometimes pen and ink, but not infrequently he chose as
his medium ink applied with a brush, as in his " Spoliation
of the Tomb of Queen Matilda," or pen and ink with
washes of colour, as in his exquisite drawing of " St Agnes,"
illustrating Tennyson's poem " St Agnes' Eve." Occasion
ally he expressed himself through the process of etching,
but of his work in this direction there are extant very few
instances, and these, it seems, must be assigned entirely to
the period when the views of the Brotherhood influenced
him and led him into experiments which he did not follow
up in later life. In water-colour, however, he painted con
stantly. Many of his more important pictures were worked
out in this medium before he commenced them upon

From Tennyson's Poems 1857

ST AGNES' EVE

From Tennyson Poems 1857

EDWARD GRAY AND
EMMA MORELAND

BLACK AND WHITE WORK 91
canvas ; and, besides, he has left a number of other water-
colours which were not intended as studies to be developed
later on, but were independent examples of his use of a
particular form of technical practice that gave him excellent
results. The first conspicuous assertion of his power as an illus
trator was given in 1857, when Edward Moxon published
the quarto edition of Tennyson's poems. With Holman
Hunt, Rossetti, and several other young artists, Millais was
chosen to make drawings for the book, and the manner in
which he turned to account the special opportunities pre
sented by the material which he found then at his disposal,
confirmed at once the good opinion that the more judicious
observers had formed about his chances of success in this
branch of art. He stamped himself as an instinctive
translator, with the acutest perception of the pictorial
possibilities of the text that was put before him, and a
marvellous faculty for keeping sympathetically in touch
with the intentions of the author. His imagination, it
must be remembered, was not of the erratic order, prone
to build strange fancies upon an insufficient foundation,
and ready to lead him into speculations only vaguely con
nected with the original matter he had undertaken to study.
His natural equipment for his work was something much
better than that, for what he had instead was the far more
valuable quality of intelligence. Rarely enough did he
miss the true signification of the passage he had to illus-
rate, and still more rarely did he fail to make his ex
planation of it completely graphic and decisive.
To say that he took his colour from the writer with
whom he was associated is not to imply any disparage
ment of his ability. Rather it may be taken as an acknow
ledgment of his fitness for his work. If he had been less
tractable, or less inclined to use his analytical skill for the
dissection of the ideas formed by the literary craftsman, he
would never have shown that astonishing variety and

92 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
versatility by which he was distinguished, and certainly he
would never have touched those depths of knowledge
and thought which he sounded time after time with per
fect confidence. It was this sense of adaptation, and
this capacity for assimilating knowledge, that made his
Tennyson drawings so impressive. In such designs as the
"Mariana," "St Agnes' Eve," "The Sisters," and the
" Death of the Old Year," and in the slighter " Locksley
Hall," and " Edward Gray and Emma Moreland," it is the
very mind of the poet that is pictured, and every touch set
down by the artist aims at conveying to the observer
exactly and faithfully the mental picture that the words
suggest. The illustrations give us nothing that is not
already enshrined in the text, nor do they hint at any
novel or unexpected reading of its hidden meanings ; they
may be said to make it visible, and to put the poetic
imagery into a tangible form.
These Tennyson drawings were, however, but a foretaste
of a feast of work of the same class provided lavishly by
Millais during the decade that followed. In 1859 " Once a
Week " was started, and he began with the first volume a
connection with that magazine that continued without
interruption for some years. Among the earlier drawings
that he contributed to its pages were illustrations to the
lines by Tom Taylor on " Magenta " and " The Plague of
Elliant," and among those that followed in rapid succession
were " Farmer Chell's Kitchen," " Margaret Wilson," " The
Monk," " A Fair Jacobite," which he afterwards painted as
"The White Cockade," and "The Mite of Dorcas," which
was the germ of the idea later on elaborated as "The
Widow's Mite." Most of these were comparatively slight
in handling, bearing evidences of speed in execution, and
treated with straightforward and ready simplicity ; but in
scarcely a single instance do they show any failure to
appreciate correctly and vividly the subject-matter selected.
During the same period he completed a set of nineteen

THE HIDDEN TREASURE

tit ,lt

THE WICKED HUSBANDMAN

BLACK AND WHITE WORK 93
designs of quite a different character, carefully reasoned
out and minutely detailed drawings of " The Parables of
Our Lord." These appeared first as magazine illustrations,
in Good Words, a periodical to which he was a frequent
contributor; but about 1864 they were issued as a volume
by Messrs Routledge. The series shows a certain continu
ous evolution in his technical methods, a progress from
the closeness of application by which the black and white
of his Pre-Raphaelite days was marked to the freedom of
touch and largeness of style that belong to his drawings
during the later sixties. It is interesting in this connec
tion to compare the minuteness of " The Hidden Treasure,"
or "The Unmerciful Servant," with the more suggestive
looseness of handling in " The Wicked Husbandman," or
" The Tares " ; for by this comparison may be realised
much of the innate inclination of his mind, and a
sufficiently clear insight may be obtained into the nature
of those changes by which the course of his practice, not
only in black and white, but in painting as well, was
determined. For the highest manifestation of his gifts as an illustrator
it is, however, necessary to turn to that memorable array
of drawings by which he was represented in the Cornhill
Magazine. In these he had the sort of opportunity that
suited him best, for he was called upon to reproduce the
fancies of skilled story-tellers, and was provided with
material that lent itself well to pictorial interpretation.
There were even then inequalities in his work ; inequalities,
however, that could generally be referred to deficiencies in
the suggestion provided by the text with which he had to
deal ; but, where the story was of such a nature that it
gave to the artist a reasonable number of hints, he never
failed to do justice to its picturesque qualities and to
his own artistic ability.
The author with whom he seemed to be most in
sympathy was Anthony Trollope. The forty-one illustra-

94 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
tions executed by him for that novelist's "Orley Farm"
are to be placed in the front rank of his black and white
designs. Trollope, in his autobiography, refers to this story
and its illustrator in the words : "I am fond of ' Orley
Farm,' and I am especially fond of its illustrations by
Millais, which are the best I have seen in any novel in
any language," a sincere opinion that with all its enthusi
astic approval can be endorsed almost without reservation.
If Millais did not reach a level of intelligence quite as
remarkable in the drawings for the " Small House at
Allington," " Framley Parsonage," " Phineas Finn," and
in some of his other attempts, at least he never produced
anything that could be criticised as inefficient or want
ing in taste, and in execution his work went on year by
year, increasing in power and growing in happy readi
ness and charm. By the end of the seventies, when he
made himself responsible for the woodcuts in the edition de
luxe of Thackeray's " Barry Lyndon," it had gained a degree
of delicacy and refinement, a feeling for beauty of line and
elegance of arrangement, which could hardly be matched.
Whether the Millais of "Barry Lyndon" surpassed the
artist who had handled " Orley Farm " it would be very
difficult to say; but with these two books he certainly
established the standard against which can be measured
not only his own work but that of all other artists in
black and white whom the latter half of this, century
has produced.
It would be possible to quote a great many more in
stances of his success as an illustrator, for during the busiest
period of his production he contributed to a great many
books and magazines ; but it must suffice to call attention
to the real meaning of his intervention in this section of the
work done by the British School. No consideration of
his influence and no review of his performance would be
complete without an appreciative reference to his services
to black and white. As a painter he has a secure place

THE TARES

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT

BLACK AND WHITE WORK 95
among the chief modern masters of the world ; but what
he did for pictorial art was paralleled, if not surpassed, by
the victory he won for the draughtsmen, and by his asser
tion of the dignity and importance of illustration as a form
of occupation for even the greatest of art workers.

CHAPTER VIII
COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS
A LTHOUGH it is very much to be questioned whether
"^ written criticisms have any particular value as a means
of directing the practice of an artist, or as an educational
influence affecting his convictions, a degree of historical
interest attaches to them, when collected, because they
reflect to some extent the unprofessional opinion about his
capacities at different periods of his life. They show, if
they do nothing else, how his efforts to express himself
have been accepted and understood, how his aims have
appealed to the people about him, and what has been the
effect produced by his manner of asserting the artistic
creed, good or bad, to which he has given his adherence.
By the tone of these criticisms, indeed, some sort of
estimate can be formed of his strength, and of the degree
of independence with which he has approached the
problems that his profession has presented. If he has
never shown any striking individuality, and has been
content to jog along comfortably, keeping step with the
rest of his fellows, he is probably written down in the
records as a most respectable person, with a proper respect
for public opinion and a due appreciation of his duty to
the community.
But if he has had the courage to take a line of his
own, and to think and act for himself independently of
any fashion by which the sestheticism of the men about
him may have been warped, his treatment by the critics
is sure to have been decidedly violent. What they
have set down by way of opinion concerning his work is
96

From "Orley Farm"

LADY MASON
AFTER HER CONFESSION

C.HJ. -

ORLEY FARM

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 97
generally virulent enough, and plainly expressive of their
resentment at his implied disrespect for the tame beliefs
and conventional performances of less active artists. His
ideas, as translated by the writers who have taken no
trouble to analyse them, are more often than not grossly
misrepresented, full of bewildering inconsistencies, and
distinguished by neither logic nor sincerity. He is
described as a mountebank, a deliberate perverter of the
truth, a conspirator striving to undermine established institu
tions, a man without sense of respect, — as anything, in fact,
save an artist with sufficient force of character to wish to
do things in the way that he honestly believes to be best.
There always seems to be this sort of proportion main
tained between acerbity of criticism and the artistic import
ance of the man criticised. The stronger the individuality
of the worker the more bitter the tone of the remarks
made about him, and the more eager the desire to prove
him to be unworthy of attention. At first, at all events,
he has to put up with the grossest abuse, with attacks that
may continue for years. If he is gifted with quite unusual
determination and extraordinary firmness of character, he
may, by refusing to yield to outcry, live down the opposi
tion, and enjoy in his later career the widest popularity ;
but if there are any weak places in his armour the
onslaught on him may have disastrous results. Many
men with exceptional capacities and full of great possi
bilities have by some small lack of courage been diverted
from the course that would have led them to eminence in
their profession, and have, in obedience to unreasonable
. clamour, turned themselves into mere purveyors of the
particular commonplaces that the ordinary type of critic
makes it his business to advocate.
It was fortunate for the vitality of the British school
that Sir John Millais was not a weakling, afraid of hard
words and capable of being influenced by noisy assertions.
What was the part he played in our art history has been
G

98 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
already explained, and it is easy to realise what conse
quences would have come from any surrender, on his part,
of the principles for which he fought so tenaciously. Yet
if surrender were ever justified by vehemence of opposition
it would have been excusable in his case. Few artists
have had to endure such abuse as that with which he was
bespattered when he began to give the first convincing
proofs of his decision to break away from the mannerism
that he was expected to support. Rarely, indeed, have
critics lost their heads so completely, or shown such
personal animosity to a worker who was certainly not
incapable, and might, if only from a spirit of fairplay, have
been credited with a reasonable amount of sincerity.
As a matter of fact, what was written about Millais,
when he was fighting the battle of living art against the
forces of degenerate ignorance and self-interest, can hardly
be called criticism. It was rather an expression of the
idea, to which many savage tribes pin their faith, that a
loud noise and a threatening attitude will frighten away
an enemy who looks like coming to close quarters. The
device is not particularly logical, and is, as a rule, only
employed when the enemy is numerically weak ; but it
has been known on occasions to serve its purpose, and to
produce a reasonable degree of disorganisation. It is apt
to fail, however, when the oncoming force refuses to play
the game fairly, according to the rules of savage warfare,
and insists upon finding out what amount of solid re
sistance there may be behind the noise. In such an event
the shouters either decide with amazing promptitude that
their duty calls them at once in another direction, or they
subside engagingly into smiling silence, and do their best
to explain that they have suddenly discovered their
opponents to be a long-lost and ardently-expected band
of brothers.
This was very much what happened in the fifties when
Millais, leading his little party of reformers, appeared

From "Framley Parsonage"

THE CRAWLEY FAMILY

From " The Cornhill Magazine," Vol. VI. THE BISHOP AND THE KNIGHT

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 99
to challenge the great horde of mercenaries that had
entrenched itself in the house of art. The shouts were
very loud, and the warlike contortions were most terrify .-
ing ; but somehow they failed to have any effect. He
refused to run away, and with painful determination made
evident his intention to fight things out to the bitter end.
So in quite a short time it became convenient to admit
that he was supporting a good cause, and to substitute
adulation for abuse. When once he had clearly proved
that he was indifferent to the worst that could be said
about him, that he had resolved to work out his own
salvation, without help from people who did not appreciate
his real purpose, or understand the motives by which he
was actuated, everyone was ready to back him up and to
gain reflected glory by professions of extreme sympathy
with his artistic aims.
The chief weapon that was employed against him,
during the period of most persistent and unbalanced
attack, was wilful and unscrupulous misrepresentation.
The keynote of one type of the arguments used, if they
can be dignified by such a term, was struck in the
utterance of an inspired critic, who announced that " Pre-
Raffleism is a dodge." In the view of the men who wrote
after this fashion, Millais had thrown himself into the Pre-
Raphaelite movement simply to gain the notoriety that
attaches to eccentricity. He wanted to be talked about,
to get himself well advertised, and to pose as a kind
of aesthetic acrobat, who could attract the gaping
wonder of the crowd by his surprising tricks. That he
could be sincere in setting himself apart from his con
temporaries, was by no means admitted ; it saved trouble
to impute to him unworthy motives, and to dismiss him as
a discredit to the best traditions of his profession.
Even the writers who took a somewhat higher level, and
did not descend to personalities, found, however, a way
to suggest that the intention of his art was sinister and

ioo JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
reactionary. " Christ in the House of His Parents," was
an avowal of mediaeval superstition, a piece of Romanist
propagandism designed to pervert the morals and upset
the religious convictions of the community. The artist
was a Jesuitical conspirator using his opportunities to
undermine the faith of his countrymen : and all this
because, in accordance with the strictest principles of
Protestantism, he chose to reject a form of aesthetic faith
that seemed to him to have, by a process of inbreeding,
degenerated so grossly that it had ceased to be anything
but a sham. TMuch more fairly might he have been .
attacked for his disregard of all that attractive symbolism
by which the art inspired by the Roman Church is dis
tinguished, for treating a Holy Family with an almost
pagan belief in nature, and an indifference to conventions
that are supposed to have a peculiarly devotiortal signifi
cance. The religious teaching in his picture was not
sweetened with prettiness, nor made palatable by concealing
its serious import under a veil of sensuous beauty ; it was
asserted with the stern directness of the grimmest Puritan,
without any concessions to those timid minds that shrink
from plain facts as things with which it is painful to come
in contact.
That his realism did shock a great many people, who
made no attempt to understand its artistic import, becomes
evident enough if the criticisms that deal with the aspect
of his pictures, rather than their symbolism, are compared.
For instance, with reference to " Christ in the House of
His Parents," one critic wrote that " Mr Millais, still
retaining strong marks of that power which distinguished
his Boccacciesque picture last year, has sunk into ex
travagance bordering in one instance on irreverence";
and another declared that " Mr Millais and his imitators
attempt to engraft themselves on the wildest and most
uncouth productions of the early German School, with a
marked affectation of indifference to everything we are

From " The Cornhill Magazine" Vol. II.

LAST WORDS

From " The Cornhill Magazine" Vol. V.

IRENE

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 101
accustomed to seek and admire. Mr Millais's principal
picture is, to speak plainly, revolting. The attempt to
associate the Holy Family with the meanest details of a
carpenter's shop with no conceivable omission of misery,
of dirt, and even of disease, all finished with the same
loathsome minuteness, is disgusting ; and, with a surprising
power of imitation, this picture serves to show how far
mere imitation may fall short, by dryness and conceit, of
all dignity and truth."
Quotations of a similar character can be collected in
abundance from the papers and magazines published in
the spring of 1850. The Literary Gazette speaks of the
same picture as " a nameless atrocity supposed to repre
sent a verse of Zechariah. A miserable carpenter's shop
with two children embracing in the front of the bench, and
a naked distorted boy on the right side, are presented to
us as high art, in which there is neither taste, drawing,
expression, or genius. And yet this style pertains to an
imitative school, which, the sooner it is sent back to the
dryness and wretched matter-of-fact of old times will be the
better. Such things are simply disagreeable, if not worse,
and neither can be called the true end of the fine arts."
This writer apparently plumed himself on the possession
of a very correct taste, and of a keen judgment as to " the
true end of the fine arts." Another seems to have had
ideals about the moral mission of the artist, for he gives as
his opinion that " Mr Millais, in his picture without a name,
which represents a Holy Family in the interior of a
carpenter's shop, has been most successful in the least
dignified features of his presentment, and in giving to the
higher forms, characters, and meanings a circumstantial
art-language from which we recoil with loathing and
disgust. There are many to whom his work will seem a
pictorial blasphemy. Great imitative talents have hetfi
^eenjjervertecTTo the use of an eccentricity, both lament
able and revolting" ; while a third provides an excellent

102 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
specimen of what may be called the sportively personal
style: — "We can hardly imagine anything more ugly,
graceless, and unpleasant, than Mr Millais's picture of
Christ in the carpenter's shop. Such a collection of splay
feet, puffed joints, and mis-shapen limbs was assuredly
never before made within so small a compass. We have
great difficulty in believing a report that this unpleasing
and atrociously affected picture has found a purchaser at a
high price."
From this particular critic came also some remarks about
" Ferdinand lured by Ariel," which was almost as bitterly
disparaged as " Christ in the House of his Parents," and
not less unthinkingly : " Another specimen from the same
brush inspires rather laughter than disgust. A Ferdinand
of most ignoble physiognomy is being lured by a pea-green
monster, intended for Ariel, whilst a row of sprites, such
as it takes a Millais to devise, watch the operation with
turquoise eyes. It would occupy more room than the
thing is worth to expose all the absurdity and impertinence
of this work." The same comparison was made in other
reviews of the pictures of the year. The writer, who con
sidered the picture of the Holy Family a "pictorial
blasphemy," decided that " Ferdinand lured by Ariel " was,
" though better in the painting, yet more senseless in the
conception — a scene built on the contrivances of the stage
manager, but with very bad success " ; and yet another,
with an effort to be fair and impartial, found that "the
picture of ' Ariel and Ferdinand ' is less offensive in point
of subject and feeling, but scarcely more pardonable in
style. We do not want to see Ariel and the sprites of the
Enchanted Isle in the attitudes and shapes of green goblins,
or the gallant Ferdinand twisted like a posture-master by
Albert Durer. These are mere caprices of genius ; but
while we condemn them as deplorable examples of per
verted taste, we are not insensible to the power they indicate
over some of the most curious spells of art"

From " The Small House at Allington '

THE BOARD

"PLEASE, MA'AM, CAN WE HAVE
From "The Small House at Allington'' THE PEAS TO SHELL?"

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 103
Presumably the whole of these noisy misinterpreters of
the artist's intentions took their cue from the Times, as
the chief disseminator of journalistic opinion. They were
certainly egged on by it to do their worst, and encouraged
in any exaggerated courses they might like to adopt. The
Times, when it declared that "that morbid infatuation
which sacrifices truth, beauty, and genuine feeling, to mere
eccentricity, deserves no quarter at the hands of the public,"
simply pilloried the lad of twenty and invited every passer
by to throw mud at him. No wonder Millais spoke, in
after years, of the fifties as the time when he was "so
dreadfully bullied " ; he must, for all his astonishing self-
reliance and firmness of faith in the absolute justice of his
cause, very often have found it difficult to stand against the
storm. It is, however, likely that he saw through the bluster and
violence of the attacks upon him, and was induced to hold
on by a consciousness that more than half of the vehemence
of his opponents arose from their real fear of his ability.
If he had been less of a menace to the order of things that
existed in the art world when he was a boy, he would not
have been held to be worth so much trouble. The desire to
crush him arose from the knowledge that his influence, if
allowed to develop, would become irresistible ; he was too
distinct a personality to remain of no account in art politics
when once he had gained a hearing, and the only chance
was to nip his independence in the bud. Even if he had
but a partial appreciation of the uneasiness that he was
creating among the men who were straining every nerve to
keep their popularity, he must have felt that there was
hope of eventual victory, hope enough to justify him in
doggedly resisting every effort to drive him from the
position he had taken up.
What this position was, and why it was assailed so
furiously, even by the critics who. had judgment enough to
recognise the greatness of the natural gifts with which

104 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
Millais was endowed, is very well explained in an article
on the Pre-Raphaelite faith that Mr F. G. Stephens, who
could write with full authority on the subject, contributed
to the London Review in 1862 — so well explained, indeed,
that one of the most significant passages is worth quoting
verbatim : " If students referred to the productions of those
artists who differed from themselves only in being of greater
age, and servilely adopted the dogmas and practice of their
seniors, without any reference to nature, such a practice,
the Brotherhood averred, could not but produce a school of
painters, each generation of whom would be more effete,
because more conventionalised, than that which preceded
it, and to whose experience they looked for guidance.
"The end of this might be guessed, said the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood in the flush of youthful confi
dence, and they even dared to add that the result of
following such a pernicious system was obvious in the
works of almost every one of their own contemporaries,
and in those produced by their immediate forerunners.
Declaring that the followers of Raphael had ruined the
art, simply because they were followers of Raphael, and
not humble students of nature, and reflecting, not without
bitterness, upon the practice of the Prince of Painters him
self when he condescended to serve a vile Court, the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood, with characteristic audacity, and
with a seriousness which was half veiled in the fantastic
assumption of their Society's peculiar title, determined
that their own works should show a different motive in art,
and that they themselves, with all the powers and skill
that were within them, would, whatever the consequences
might be, pursue a practice widely removed from that of
those whom they and all the world about them had been
taught to respect or imitate.
"Half in fun, the Brotherhood called itself 'Pre-
Raphaelite,' adopting that title rather to express a full
measure of admiration for the motive which guided the

From "Once a Week"

FARMER CHELL'S KITCHEN

MH HHO

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 105
great painters preceding Raphael than intending it to be
understood, as the critics of a dozen years ago received it, as
chosen in approbation of the oftentimes fantastic, more
often ascetic, and almost invariably imperfect systems of
execution to which the undeveloped powers of painting
possessed by the early Italian artists limited so cruelly
their achievements on the panel or the convent wall. Con
sidering how small were the attainments demanded of the
art critics of the time in question, it is not surprising they
should have fallen into this absurdity. Few of these men
knew enough of the history of the art they abused the
public mind about, to be able to recognise the real state
of the case, still less were they prepared to comprehend
the true qualities which shine through the most bizarre
failures of execution, most of them the result of over-
earnestness and a devout desire to do right, which beset
the artists they ridiculed.
" Indulgence for youth of their own day, an enlightened
and foreseeing regard to the importance of that which lay
behind the most audacious declarations of the Brotherhood,
were not to be expected from such men. A few only saw
that something might come out of an idea so boldly
enunciated, and, notwithstanding the vivid colours of its
ridiculous side, sufficiently well expressed to have merited
a gentler consideration than it received."
How correct was this estimate of the so-called critical
opinion of the early fifties, is excellently proved by the
remarks with which the Times accompanied its demand
that no quarter should be given to Millais and his friends.
With reference to his " Mariana " it declared that, " these
young artists have unfortunately become notorious by
addicting themselves to an antiquated style and an
affected simplicity in painting. . . . We can extend no
toleration to a mere senile imitation of the cramped style,
false perspective, and crude colour of remote antiquity.
We want not to see what Fuseli termed drapery ' snapped

106 JOHN EVERETT MILLAtS
instead of folded,' faces bloated into apoplexy, or ex
tenuated skeletons ; colour borrowed from the jars in
a druggist's shop, and expression forced into caricature."
It was this criticism particularly that aroused Mr Ruskin
into his active championship of the Pre-Raphaelites, and
drew from him that famous letter to the Times in which
he exposed the fallacies of the newspaper arguments.
He disposed bit by bit of the charges of technical in
competence which were arrayed against the young artists,
defending their knowledge of perspective, praising their
painting, and directly contradicting the reference to
Fuseli by the assertion that "there is not a single
study of drapery in the whole Academy, be it in large
works or small, which, for perfect truth, power, and finish,
could be compared, for an instant, with the white draperies
on the table of Mr Millais's ' Mariana,' and of the right-
hand figure in the same painter's ' Dove returning to the
Ark.' "
Although this powerful support, from a man who was
prepared to fight with all his energies on the side of the
Brotherhood, did not fail in its ultimate effect, the chorus
of abuse ceased only when it became evident that the
public sympathised with the artists and not with the
critics who found fault with them. Because Millais was
the most prominent, the most conspicuously talented
member of the group, he was fixed upon as the chief
and most dangerous figure in a movement that had to
be checked at all costs. As he towered over the rest,
he was chosen as the target for the missiles, that the men
of " small attainments " hurled at Pre-Raphaelitism ; and,
for the same reason, when the cause for which he was
striving had won its way to acceptance, he received the
fullest share of the adulation that is always lavished
upon success.
Anything like unanimity of praise was, however, a long
time coming. It was necessarily a slow growth, and took

Mlmfy^
sSiliS fife

From "Once a Week"

THE MONK

From "Once a Week'

MARGARET WILSON
THE SCOTTISH MARTYR

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 107.
many years in development. But a constantly increasing
tendency to judge him more fairly appeared among the
newer men, who, with better balanced judgment, refused
to adopt the gross exaggerations of the old type of
criticism. Year by year the dilution of the blind and
thoughtless invective with serious and rational considera
tion became more perceptible, and with each successive
picture he was, it could be seen, making more secure his
hold upon educated taste. " The Order of Release," for
instance, which was at first generally assailed, because its
marvellous realism was unappreciated, drew later on from
Mr Andrew Lang an expression of the opinion that " the
stamp of actual truth is on it, and if ever such an event
happened, if ever a Highlander's wife brought a pardon
for her husband to a reluctant turnkey, things must have
occurred thus. The work is saved by expression and
colour from the realism of a photograph. . . . The subject
and the sentiment, no less than the treatment, made this
picture a complete success." And of "The Rescue," a
"very great" work, according to Mr Ruskin, another
critic wrote : " Apart from the rapture of the mother,
the intense gladness of one of the children's faces as she
embraces the lady's neck, and the self-restrained, yet
frightened, looks of the boy, who clings about the
shoulders of the deliverer, are enough to immortalise
the picture and its painter."
In these comments are seen the first fruits of his
victory, the earliest signs of that enthusiastic approval
which he enjoyed in ample measure for the latter part
of his life. A few quotations from the opinions of the
men who have been able to place his pictures of many
periods in their right relation, and to estimate the full
value and significance of the changes in his manner and
methods, will serve to establish a complete comparison
between the criticism that was intended to crush him and
that which recorded his success. Sir Walter Armstrong,

108 " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
in the biography which he wrote in 1886, as a special
number of the Art Journal, says : " In our living school
of English painters, Sir John Everett Millais enjoys by
far the widest fame; for thirty-five years the public has
concerned itself with his work, and for more than a quarter
of a century, from the year of the 'Black Brunswicker'
downwards, no contributions to the Academy have ex
cited so much interest as his. Beginning as a preraphailite
enrage", he promises to end a true successor of Gains
borough and Reynolds ; and through the whole of his
transmutations, or rather of his development — for, after
all, the progress from the ' Isabella' of 1849 to the ' Lady
Peggy Primrose' of 1885 is but the growth of four
centuries writ small on a single brow — he has at once
preserved his own rather militant sincerity, and carried
his public with him."
Mr M. H. Spielmann, in his " In Memoriam " notice, that
appeared in the Magazine of Art for September 1896,
declares that "now not England only, but with her the
whole wide world of art, mourns her greatest painter of
the century, the most universally beloved man who,
through his genius, has ever made his way into the
heart and the affections of a nation. ... A life of glory
prematurely cut short, has been snatched away, leaving
English art deprived of its brightest, if not its greatest,
ornament"; and in his book dealing with the memorial
exhibition at the Academy in 1898, is this passage:
" Standing amid this series of fine achievements, among
which are not a few indisputable masterpieces, one may
well recall the words that Millais spoke before the Royal
Academy Commission in 1864, when he championed the
candidature of such men as John Leech as members of
that body : ' Very few of us painters will leave behind
us such good and valuable work as he has left. You
will never find a bit of false sentiment in anything he
did.' The work with which Millais has endowed his

From "Sister Anna's Probation"

ANNA AND HER LOVER

From "Once a Week"

THE PLAGUE OF ELLIANT

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS 109
country, the life's labour which he has left behind, will
assuredly send a thrill of gratitude and pride through the
bosom of every man who, caring for his country's fame,
has looked round on this great collection, unprecedented
in its special merits in modern times, and has recognised
how seldom it can be said that the 'false sentiment' he
condemned taints any one of them. The main cause for
marvel is that the poorer pictures, seen together, make a
display far better than they did when they were seen by
themselves. The successes are so brilliant, that the inferior
works seem actually to gain in the effulgence of the best.
Never has the name of Millais stood higher than it does
to-day — when his genius is spread out before us, and his
defects are forgiven in the power of his art."
In another book, Professor Muther's "History of Modern
Painting," which is important because it represents Contin
ental opinion about the artist's work, he is spoken of as "one
of those men in the history of nineteenth-century painting
who are as forcible and healthy as they are many-sided.
I do not know one who could have developed so swiftly
from a style of the most minute exactness to one of the
most powerful breadth ; not one who could have united
such poetry of conception with such an enormous know
ledge of human beings ; not one who could have been so
like Proteus in variety — at one moment charming, at
another dreamy, at another entirely positive " ; and else
where in the same book it is remarked that, "this same
stringent painter of character commands the soft, light
brush of a painter of children as few others. No one since
Reynolds and Gainsborough has painted with so much
character as Millais the dazzling freshness of English
youth ; the energetic pose of a boy's head or the beauty
of an English girl — a thing which stands in the world
alone." That he had triumphed, that he had silenced
detraction and secured that crown of thoughtful and
intelligent approbation for which every artist strives,

no JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
these tributes to his power declare with all possible
emphasis. To multiply such quotations would be easy
enough ; the applause that he received at last was un
stinted, and without a discordant note, but it was honest,
and it expressed the true conviction of people who knew
him well and loved him because they did know him.
It was characteristic of his eager and straightforward
nature that he should derive from his success the most
hearty enjoyment. Conceit he had none; but he de
lighted in the consciousness that his youthful indifference
to clamour, and his sturdy refusal to bend to the storm
that raged so furiously about him then, should have been in
the end justified publicly and openly. He rejoiced to think
that the labours of his life had not been wasted, and that
he had helped to give to the art of this country a renewed
vitality that promises now to remain to it permanently.
What he felt about his work is expressed truly in Mr
Spielmann's book : " It is well that the country should
appreciate the triumph achieved in this great exhibition at
Burlington House — that triumph to which, stretched on
his death-bed, the great painter looked forward with such
keen eagerness and passionate interest, a glory not for
himself alone, but shared, by his favour, by the whole
English School. He knew that it would ' vindicate ' him,
and lying under the stern verdict of fate, he found con
solation in the thought ; not from vanity, but from love of
his art. And if the world will regard it aright, it will
perceive that this collection of the greater part of Millais's
life-work, now gathered on the scene of his early struggles
and subsequent victory, constitutes the most important
purely artistic event of the kind that has taken place in
the present century. Just as the cycle is drawing to its
close, the public has the good fortune of witnessing a
display of brilliancy, virile power, force, variety of ex
pression, technical ability, and intuitive ' Tightness ' which
assuredly none of us will ever see again from the hand of

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COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS ui
one man." It was a vindication on which any artist
might justifiably have prided himself, and there is no
difficulty in believing that to Sir John Millais the
knowledge that it would be made so completely must have
been peculiarly gratifying.
There is one other point to note, because it marks
beyond dispute the growth of his reputation through the
half-century covered by his working life, and that is the
ever-increasing anxiety of collectors to become possessed
of his pictures. The prices that his canvases would fetch
in his later years compared strangely with the ^250 that
was thought to be a great sum for anyone to give for
"Christ in the House of His Parents," or with the
^150, that was paid to him in instalments of ^50, for
"The Huguenot"; and since his death he has, by the
verdict of the sale-room, been accorded a place among
the old masters. The Chantrey Fund Trustees acquired,
for ^2000, "Speak! Speak!" in 1895 ; and, some years
before, his "Vale of Rest," for which, when it was first
exhibited, no one would pay the price, ^600, put upon it,
had brought, when the Graham collection was dispersed,
3000 guineas. For " The Order of Release " he received
^400 in 1853; by 1879 it had reached ^2835, and in 1898
it was sold for 5000 guineas. The " Black Brunswicker "
rose from ^819 in 1862, to ^2782 in 1898 ; and in the
same year " Afternoon Tea " was sold for £1 365, and
"Yes" for ^1050. "The Proscribed Royalist" brought
^551 in 1862, and £2 100 in 1897 ; and in the present year
4500 guineas were paid at Christie's for " The Minuet."
These may fairly be classed as comments on his career.
The money value of a work of art does not necessarily
bear any relation to its aesthetic worth, but keen competi
tion between men of means for the privilege of possessing
the canvases of any particular artist is, at all events, a
proof that he is recognised as a leader in the art world,
and a prominent figure among his contemporaries. That

112 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS
this sign of appreciation was accorded to Sir John Millais in
his lifetime was a fair compensation for his early struggles.
He had fought a good fight, and wealth and honours came
to him happily in full measure, while he was yet young
enough to enjoy them to the utmost. His, at least, was
not the fate that has befallen so many other great workers
in art, to suffer poverty and unhappiness through long
years of labour, sustained only by the conviction that
posterity would do justice to his memory

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From "Home A factions''

THERE IS NAE LUCK
ABOUT THE HOUSE

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS

This List is reprinted by the kind permission of Mr M. H. Spielmann, from
his book entitled "Millais and His Works." The dates given are those at
which, as nearly as can be ascertained, the various works were completed.

1841
Cupid crowned with Flowers
c. 1845
William Hugh Fenn (destroyed

picture)

1846

Baptism of Guthren the Dane
plzarro seizing the inca of peru
The Moorish Chief 1847
The Tribe of Benjamin seizing
the Daughters of Shiloh
ElgivaThe Widow's Mite
Study of an Indian's Head
ChildhoodYouth Manhood
Age Music

(Panels for the
Judges' Lodgings
at Leeds)

ArtCymon (study for Cymon and
Iphigenia) 1848
W. Hugh Fenn
Romeo and Juliet (last scene)
1849
Isabella (Lorenzo and Isabella) >"^b
Portrait of a Gentleman and
his Grandchild (Mr Wyatt)
Ferdinand lured by Ariel
Christ in the House of his
Parents 1850
Thomas Combe
The Woodman's Daughter

1851
Cymon and Iphigenia
Mariana in the Moated Grange
Return of the Dove to the Ark
or " Daughters of Noah car
essing the Dove, etc." ; or
"Wives of the Sons of Noah"
The Bridesmaid ("All Hallow's
E'en") 1852
Memory
OpheliaThe Huguenot
The Huguenot (Sketch)
The Huguenot (Study)
Mrs Coventry K. Patmore
Head of Ophelia (with Wreath)
1853
The Order of Release
The Proscribed Royalist, 1651
The Proscribed Royalist
St George and the Dragon (sign
board) 1854
Waiting (or A Girl at a Stile)
A Highland Lassie (or Head of a
Scotch Girl)
John Ruskin
Landscape Study of Waterfall
Miss Siddal

i855
The Rescue
The Random Shot (originally
"L' Enfant du Regiment")
1856
The Conclusion of Peace, 1856
(correct title " Peace Concluded ")

H

113

H4

JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

Autumn Leaves
The Blind Girl
" Portrait of a Gentleman " (or
"The Picture-book")
Pot Pourri i857
Head of a Girl
Head of a Girl
Sir Isumbras at the Ford ("A
Dream of the Past")
The Escape of a Heretic, 1559
The Escape of a Heretic, 1559
(small oil version)
News from Home
Wedding Cards 1858
The Vale of Rest i8S9
The Love of James I. of Scot
land
Apple-Blossoms ("Spring")
Children gathering Grapes
Head of a Lady (cutting a lock of
hair)
Meditation
Head of a Woman i860
The Black Brunswicker
The Rivals 1861
The Ringlet (see 1859)
1862
The Ransom
The White Cockade
Mrs Charles Freeman
"Trust Me !"
Parable of the Lost Piece of
Money -^
The Bride vv
Lady in a Garden .o>
A Pastoral o-c
Head of a Girl j
Wandering Thoughts
The Music Mistress 1863
My First Sermon
My Second Sermon

The Eve of St Agnes
The Eve of St Agnes (small ver
sion)
The Eve of St Agnes (small ver
sion)
The Eve of St Agnes (oil sketch)
Henry Manners (Marquess of
Granby)
Suspense
The Wolf's Den
Bridesmaid throwing the Lucky
Slipper 1864
Leisure Hours
"Charlie is my Darling"
" Swallow ! Swallow ! "
Master Wyclif Taylor (son of
Mr Tom Taylor)
Lily (daughter of J. Noble, Esq.)
Harold (son of the Dowager-Coun
tess of Winchelsea)
The Conjuror
Red Riding Hood

1865
The Parable of the Tares (or
the Enemy sowing Tares)
Joan of Arc
EstherThe Romans leaving Britain
The Greek Slave
Attention Diverted

1866

The Minuet 1867
Asleep (correct title "Sleeping")
Just Awake (correct title "Wak
ing")
Jephthah Master Cayley 1868
Stella
Vanessa Sir John Fowler, Bart., CE.
Rosalind and Celia
A Souvenir of Velasquez
SistersGreenwich Pensioners at the
Tomb of Nelson (originally
"Pilgrims to St Paul's")

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS 115

Greenwich Pensioners at the
Tomb of Nelson (small oil ver
sion)
The Bride
Head of a Girl
ExcelsiorMilking Time 1869
The Gambler's Wife
Nina, Daughter of F. Lehmann,
Esq.
A Dream of Dawn
The End of the Chapter
1870
A Widow's Mite
A Flood
Chill October
The Boyhood of Raleigh
Sir John Kelk, Bart.
The Knight Errant
Marchioness of Huntly
The Martyr of the Solway
1871
"Yes or No?"
Flowing to the River
George Grote
"Victory, O Lord!"
A Somnambulist 1872
Mrs Heugh
"Hearts are Trumps"
Sir James Paget
Flowing to the Sea
Master Liddell
Marquess of Westminster
"Oh! that a Dream so long
enjoyed, etc" 1873
Hon. Walter Rothschild
Early Days
Scotch Firs
Mrs Bischoffsheim
New Laid Eggs
Sir William Sterndale Bennett
Winter Fuel 1874
The Picture of Health

The North-West Passage
The Fringe of the Moor
Miss Eveleen TENNANT(MrsF. Ii.
Myers)
Still for a Moment
A Day-Dream 1875
Forbidden Fruit
Eveline, Daughter of T. Evans
Lees, Esq.
Gracia, Daughter of T. Evans
Lees, Esq.
"No!"
The Deserted Garden
"Over the Hills and Far
Away "
"Model,'' a Basset Hound
The Convalescent
The Crown of Love

1876
"Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!"
Mrs Sebastian Schlesinger
A Yeoman of the Guard
Twin Daughters of T. R. Hoare,
Esq. ("Twins")
Getting Better
George Millais
Everett Millais
Miss Effie Millais
Miss Mary Millais
Miss Alice Caroline Millais
Italian Girl, An (for a time known
as "Pippa")
Lord Lytton
Duchess of Westminster
Countess Grosvenor
Lady Beatrice Grosvenor
Lord Ronald Gower
The Sound of Many Waters
1877
The Earl of Shaftesbury
Effie Deans
A Good Resolve
"Yes!"
Puss-in-Boots Bright Eyes
Marchioness of Ormonde
Thomas Carlyle

i\6

JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

1878
Mrs Stibbard
A Jersey Lily
The Princes in the Tower
St Martin's Summer
Countess of Carysfort
Bride of Lammermoor
1879
Miss Hermione Schenley
The Bridesmaid
Mrs Jopling
Mrs S. H. Beddington
Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone
The Princess Elizabeth
Miss Beatrice Caird
Cherry Ripe
TJrquhart Castle
Mrs Arthur Kennard
Miss Catherine Muriel Cowell
Stepney (originally " Portrait of
a Child") 1880
Bishop Fraser
Mrs Perugini
Diana Vernon
Rt. Hon. John Bright
Mrs Caird
"Cuckoo"
Luther Holden, P.R.C.S.
Miss Evelyn Otway
Sir John E. Millais, Bart.
Girl with Violets (small picture)
Girl at the Stile (small picture)
Sir Gilbert Greenall

D. Thwaites
Cardinal Newman
Children of Octavius Moulton
Barrett, Esq.
"Sweetest Eyes were ever
SEEN "
Rev. John Caird, D.D.
Sir J. D. Astley, Bart.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sir Henry Thompson
Little Mrs Gamp
Cinderella Captain James (Royal Scots Greys)
Mrs James (Miss Erne Millais)
Caller Herrin'

Duchess of Westminster (Lady
Constance Leveson-Gower)
Lord Wimborne
The Earl of Beaconsfield
Non Angli sed Angeli
1882
PomonaMrs James Stern
Olivia Duchess of Westminster
"For the Squire"
J. C. Hook, R.A.
H.R.H. the Princess Marie of
Edinburgh ("A Little Duchess")
The Stowaway
Nell Gwynne (begun by Land-
seer and completed by Millais)
Dorothy Thorpe
Mrs Richard Budgett
Mrs Garrow- Whitby
Love Birds (originally "Une
Grande Dame")
The Captive
Dropped from the Nest
1883
Marquess of Salisbury
Forget-me-NotThe Grey Lady
T. H. Ismay
Charles Waring
Master Freeman
Sir John E. Millais, Bart. , P. R.
1884
Little Miss Muffett
Perfect Bliss
An Idyll, 1745
Lady Peggy Primrose
Lady Campbell
A Message from the Sea
The Mistletoe-Gatherer
Sir Henry Irving
Fleetwood Wilson
Lady Gilbert Greenall
Miss Scott (of Philadelphia)
Marquess of Lorne 1885
The Ruling Passion (or "The
Ornithologist")
Orphans

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS 117

A Waif
Simon Fraser
Found (landscape and figures in the
picture by Landseer)
Miss Margaret Millais
Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone
1886
LilacsBubbles
T. O. Barlow, R.A.
Ruddier than the Cherry
Lord Esher
Portia
Mercy ! St Bartholomew's Day,
1572 1887
Mrs Charles Stuart Wortley
The Nest
Murthly Moss, Perthshire
Penseroso
Allegro Earl of Rosebery
Marquess of Hartington
Clarissa 1888
Mrs Paul Hardy
The Last Rose of Summer
Murthly Water
The Old Garden
C. J. Wertheimer
Christmas Eve
Twa Bairns (Frederick and Mary
Stewart Phillips, children of Fred
erick Phillips, Esq. of Godshill,
Isle of Wight)
Sir Arthur Sullivan
Forlorn 1889
Shelling Peas
Ducklings
Afternoon Tea (called by the artist
"Gossjps") 1890
Dew Drenched Furze
Lingering Autumn
"The Moon is up and yet it is
not Night"
Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.,
and his Grandson
Portrait of a Lady
Master Ran ken

1891
Hon. Mrs Herbert Gibbs
Glen Birnam
Grace Mrs Joseph Chamberlain
Mrs Charles Wertheimer
Dorothy, Daughter of Mrs
Harry Lawson 1892
"The Little Speedwell's Dar
ling Blue"
"Blow, blow, thou Winter
Wind!"
Halcyon Weather
Master Anthony de Rothschild
"Sweet Emma Moreland"
1893
John Hare
The Girlhood of St Theresa
Pensive (or Sad)
Merry 1895
"Speak! Speak!"
Time the Reaper
St Stephen
The Empty Cage
Ada, Daughter of Robert Rin-
toul Simon, Esq.
A Disciple 1895
A Forerunner
Sir Robert Pullar
Sir Richard Quain, Bart.
Stanley Leighton, M.P.
The Hon. John Neville Manners
The Marchioness of Twebddale
J. G. Millais (unfinished)
Dates Uncertain
Bride, The
Bright Eyes
Collins, Wilkie
Digging out the Otter in the
Valley of the Tay. (Land
scape, sky, and figures by Millais)
Du Maurier, George
Good Knight, The
Hunt, W.
School Teacher, The
Winter Garden

INDEX

This Index does not include the pictures given in the Chronological List
pp. 113-117.

Ada, Daughter of Robert Rintoul
Simon, Esq., Portrait of, 61
" Afternoon Tea," 60, 1 1 1
" All Hallow's E'en," 42
"Allegro," 59
"Apple Blossoms," 16, 29, 47, 82
Armstrong, Sir W., Special number
of the " Art Journal " on Sir John
Millais, by, 108
"Asleep," 30, 50, 51
Astley, Sir J. D., Portrait of, 58
" Athenaeum," The, Criticism on the
" Portrait of Mr Ruskin " in, 44
" Autumn Leaves," 16, 29, 45, 47, 82
" Awake," 30, 50, 51
Barlow, R.A., T. O., Portrait of, 59
" Barry Lyndon," Illustrations to, 94
" Battle of Stirling," The, 89
Beaconsfield, The Earl of, Portrait
of, S8, 73
Beddington, Mrs S. H., Portrait of,
57
Bennett, Sir W. Stemdale, Portrait
of, 55 . ,
Bischoffsheim, Mrs, Portrait of, 32,
54, 55. 73
Bishop Fraser, Portrait of, 58
"Black Brunswicker," The, 47, 69,
108, in
"Blind Girl," The, 29, 45, 46, 79
" Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind,"
60,83
" Boyhood of Raleigh," The, 52, 67
" Bride," The, 48, 52
"Bride of Lammermoor," The, 57
" Bridesmaid," The, 42
"Bright Eyes," 57
Bright, The Right Hon. John,
Portrait of, 58
British School of Painting, its progress
during the century, I
" Bubbles," 59
Budgett, Mrs R., Portrait of, 58
119

Caird, Rev. J., Portrait of, 58
"Caller Herrin'," 59, 65
Campbell, Lady, Portrait of, 59
Cardinal Newman, Portrait of, 58
Carlyle, Thomas, Portrait of, 57, 72
" Captive," The, 59, 68
Chamberlain, Mrs J. , Portrait of, 60
" Charlie is my Darling," 48
" Cherry Ripe," 57, 65, 68, 75
Children of Octavius Moulton
Barrett, Esq., The, Portrait of, 59
"Chill October," 31, 47, 54, 77, 78,
80, 84
"Christ in the House of His Parents,"
15, 27, 28, 40, 46, 100, m
"Christmas Eve," 54, 60, 83
"Cinderella," 58, 68
" Clarissa," 59
" Conjuror," The, 48
"Cornhill Magazine," The, Illustra
tions in, 93
Coventry Patmore, Mrs, Portrait of,
43
" Crown of Love," The, 56
" Cuckoo," 58
" Cymon and Iphigenia," 39
" Day Dream," A, 56
" Death of the Old Year," The, 92
" Deserted Garden," The, 54
" Dew Drenched Furze," 60
" Disciple," A, 61
Dorothy, Daughter of Mrs Harry
Lawson, Portrait of, 60
" Dream of the Past," A, 46
"Dropped from the Nest," 59, 65
" Ducklings," 60
"Early Days," 55
Edinburgh, H.R.H. Princess Marie
of, Portrait of, 58
"Edward Gray, and Emma More-
land," 92
" Effie Deans," 32, 57, 67, 69

120

JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

" Elgiva Seized by Order of Arch
bishop Odo," 23, 24
" Empty Cage," The, 61
" Enemy Sowing Tares," The, 30, 48
" Escape of a Heretic," The, 46, 69
Esher, Lord, Portrait of, 59
" Esther," 30, 49
Etching, An, prepared by Millais for
"The Germ," 26
" Eve of St Agnes," The, 29, 48
"Fair Jacobite," A, 92
" Farmer Chell's Kitchen," 92
Fenn, W. Hugh, Portrait of, 39
" Ferdinand Lured by Ariel," 15, 27,
28, 40, 74, 90, 102
Fine Art Society, The, Its Exhibition
of Works by Millais, 37
"Flood," A, 52,84
" Flowing to the River," 54, 82
" Flowing to the Sea," 54, 82
" Forbidden Fruit," 56, 65
" Forerunner," A, 35, 61
"Forget-me-not," 58
"Forlorn," 60
" For the Squire," 59
Fowler, Sir John, Portrait of, 52
Fraser, Simon, Portrait of, 58
"Framley Parsonage," Illustrations
to, 94
" Fringe of the Moor," The, 54, 82,
83
" Gambler's Wife," The, 52
Garrow- Whitby, Mrs, Portrait of
59
"Gentleman and his Grandchild,"
A, Portrait of, 20, 40
"Germ," The, first publication of,
26
" Getting Better," 56
Gibbs, The Hon. Mrs, Portrait of,
60
" Girl at a Stile," A, 44
"Girlhood of St Theresa," The, 60,
69
Gladstone, The Right Hon. W. E.,
Portrait of (1879), 57; Portrait
of (1885), 20, 32, 59, 72; Portrait
of, with his Grandson, 60
" Glen Birnam," 60, 83
" Good Resolve," A, 57
' Good Words," Illustrations in, 93
"Grace," 60

"Graphic," The, Reproduction of
" Cherry Ripe " by, 65
Greenall, Sir Gilbert, Portrait of,
58
" Greenwich Pensioners at the
Tomb of Nelson," 51
Grosvenor, The Countess, Portrait
of, 57
Grosvenor Gallery, The, Special
Exhibition of Works by Millais
at, 37
Grosvenor, Lady Beatrice, Portrait
of, 57 . ,
Grote, George, Portrait of, 54
" Halcyon Weather," 60, 77, 84
Hardy, Mrs Paul, Portrait of, 60
Hare, John, Portrait of, 60, 72
Hartington, The Marquis of, Portrait
of, 59
"Hearts are Trumps," 54, 73
Heugh, Mrs, Portrait of, 55
" Hidden Treasure," The, 93
" Highland Lassie," A, 44
" History of Modern Painting," The,
Reference to Millais in, 109
Holden, P.R.C.S., Luther, Portrait
of, 58
HoU, R.A., Frank, Portrait of
Millais by, 74
Hook, R.A., J. C, Portrait of,
32. 58, 72
"Huguenot," The, 20, 29, 43, 47,
69, 81, 111
"Idyll, 1745," An, 58
"In Memoriam," Notice by M. H.
Spielmann in the "Magazine of
Art," 108
Ismay, T. H., Portrait of, 58
Irving, Sir Henry, Portrait of, 32,
58,72
"Jephthah," 49
"Jersey Lily," A, 57
"Joan of Arc," 30, 49, 66
Jopling, Mrs, Portrait of, 32, 57, 73
Judge's Lodgings, The, at Leeds,
Lunettes for, 39
Kennard, Mrs A., Portrait of, 57
"Knight Errant," The, 52, 68

INDEX

121

Lang, Andrew, Comments on the
" Order of Release " by, 107
" Last Rose of Summer," The, 60, 75
Leech, John, Election of, by the
Academy, advocated by Millais, 108
Leighton, M.P., Stanley, Portrait
of, 61
" Leisure Hours," 30, 48
" L'Enfant du Regiment," 45
"Lilacs," 59
" Lingering Autumn," 60
"Literary Gazette," The, Criticisms
on Millais in, 101
" Little Mrs Gamp," 65
" Little Miss Muffett," 59
" Locksley Hall," 92
" London Review," The, Article on
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,
by F. G. Stephens, in, 104
" Love Birds," 58
" Love of James I. of Scotland,"
The, 47
"Lorenzo and Isabella," 26, 40,
41, 47, 108
Lome, The Marquis of, Portrait of, 59
Lunettes for the Judge's Lodgings at
Leeds, 39
" Magazine of Art," The, ' ' Thoughts
on our Art of To-day," by Millais,
published in, 63 ; "In memoriam "
notice by M. H. Spielmann in, 108
"Magenta," 92
Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition
(1887), 37
Manners, The Hon. John Neville,
Portrait of, 61
" Margaret Wilson," 92
" Mariana," 92
" Mariana in the Moated Grange,"
15, 27, 42, 105
" Martyr of the Solway," 53
" Memory," 43
"Mercy! St Bartholomew's Day,"
59,66
" Merry," 60
" Message from the Sea," A, 59
Millais, Sir J. E., Portrait of, by
Frank Holl, R.A., 74
Millais, Sir J. E., Portrait of, by
himself, 33, 58, 73
Millais, Sir J. E., a leader of a new
movement, 13, 24; the nature of
his personality, 14, 32, 34, 64;

the attacks made upon him in his
youth, 16, 27, 41, 97 ; compared,
by Mr Ruskin, with Turner, 17 ;
his ancestry, 21 ; place and dale of
his birth, 22 ; opinion of Sir M. A.
Shee on his ability, 22 ; admitted
as a student in the Royal Academy
Schools, 23 ; his gold medal picture,
23 ; a member of the Pre-Raphael
ite Brotherhood, 25 ; elected an
Associate of the Royal Academy,
29 ; Royal Academician, 30 ;
changes in his methods, 30, 51 ;
his first landscapes, 31, 54 ; honours
conferred on him, 33 ; elected
President of the Royal Academy,
33 ; his deatBi 33 ; exhibitions of
his pictures, 37 ; marriage, 44 ;
his diploma picture, 49 ; his
" Thoughts on our Art of To-day,"
63, 64 ; pictures of children, 48,
65, 69, 109; his subject -pictures,
67; his portraits, 31, 70; his
speed in working, 74 > character
of his landscape work, 76 ; his
manner of painting landscape, 79 ;
visits to Scotland, and their results,
82 ; his love of black-and-white
drawing, 35, 86 ; his evidence
before the Royal Academy Com
mission, 87, 108 ; early work as
an illustrator, 91 ; rise in the
prices of his pictures, III
Millais, Miss M., Portrait of, 59
"Minuet," The, 20, 30, 49, 51, ill
" Mite of Dorcas," The, 92
" Mistletoe Gatherer," The, 59, 83
" Monk," The, 92
" Murthly Moss," 54, 59, 60, 82
" Murthly Water," 59, 82
Muther, Professor, Comments in the
"History of Modern Painting,"
by, 109
" My First Sermon," 48
" My Second Sermon," 48
"Nest," The, 59
" New Laid Eggs," 55
" News from Home," 46
Nina, Daughter of F. Lehmann, Esq.,
Portrait of, 52, 59
" No," 56
" North-West Passage," The, 20, 32,
47, 55, 67, 7°

122

JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

"Oh that a Dream so long enjoyed,"
55
"Old Garden," The, 59, 82
" Olivia," 59
"Once a Week," Illustrations in, 92
"Ophelia," 20, 29, 43, 44, 81
" Order of Release," The, 20, 29, 43,
67, 107, in
" Orley Farm," 84
"Orley Farm," Illustrations to, 94
Ormonde, The Marchioness of,
Portrait of, 57
"Orphans," 58
" Over the hills and far away," 54, 82
" Parables of our Lord," The,
Illustrations of, 49, 93
" Parable of the Lost Piece of Money,"
The, 47
" Peace Concluded, 1856," 45, 66, 70
"Penseroso," 59
"Pensive," 60
"Perfect Bliss," 59, 65
Perugini, Mrs, Portrait of, 32, 58,
73 ; sitter for the girl's head in the
" Black Brunswicker," 47
" Phineas Finn," Illustrations to, 94
"Picture Book," The, 45
" Picture of Health," The, 56
"Pilgrims to St Paul's," 51
"Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru,"
23, 39
" Plague of Elliant," The, 92
"Pomona," 59
"Portia," 59
"Portrait of a Gentleman," 45
" Portrait of a Lady," 60
" Pot-Pourri," 46
Pre - Raphaelite Brotherhood, The,
first organised, 25 ; original mem
bers of 25 ; " The Germ" produced
by, 26 ; agitation against, 27, 99 ;
upheld by Mr Ruskin, 28, 106 ; its
objects explained by Mr F. G.
Stephens, 104
Primrose, Lady Peggy, Portrait of,
58, 108
" Princes in the Tower," The, 32,
57, 69
"Princess Elizabeth," The, 59, 65,
66
" Proscribed Royalist," The, 29, 43,
44, 47, 69, 81, ill
"Puss-in-Boots,"' 57

Quain, Sir Richard, Portrait of, 61
" Random Shot," The, 16, 45
" Ransom," The, 47
"Rescue," The, 29, 43, 44, 107
"Return of the Dove to the Ark,"
The, 27, 42, 106
" Romans leaving Britain," The, 49,
66
"Rosalind and Celia," 30, 51
Rosebery, The Earl of, Portrait of,
59
Rothschild, The Hon. W., Portrait
of, 56
Royal Academy, The, its early recog
nition of the ability of Millais, 29 ;
his debt of gratitude to, 33 ;
memorial exhibition of his works
held by, 37, no; Royal commis
sion on, 87, 108
" Ruddier than the Cherry," 59
" Ruling Passion," The, 58, 67
Ruskin, John, Portrait of, 29, 43,
44; comparison between Millais
and Turner made by, 17, 77 ; his
support of the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood, 28, 106; his criticism
on pictures by Millais, 42, 45, 46,
47, 56> 59, 83, 106, 107 ; letter to
the "Times," 106
Salisbury, The Marquis of, Portrait
of, 32, 58, 72
Schenley, Miss Hermione, Portrait
of, 58
" Scotch Firs," 54, 82
Scott, Miss, Portrait of, 58
Shaftesbury, The Earl of, Portrait
of, 57
Shee, Sir Martin Archer, opinion on
the early promise of Millais ex
pressed by, 22
"Shelling Peas," 60
"Sir Isumbras at the Ford," 29,
46,82
" Sisters," The, 92
" Sisters," The, Portrait group of, 51
"Small House at Allington," The,
Illustrations to, 94
" Somnambulist," A. , 54
Son of Tom Taylor, A., Portrait of,
48
"Sound of Many Waters," The, 54,
82, 84

INDEX

123

"Souvenir of Velasquez," A., 30, 49,
51,52,66
"Speak ! Speak !" 32, 61, 69, III
Spielmann, M. H., Book, "Millais
and his Works" by, 87, 108, no;
"In memoriam" notice in the
"Magazine of Art" by, 108
"Spoliation of the Tomb of Queen
Matilda," The, 90
" Spring Flowers," 47
"St Agnes," 90
"St Agnes' Eve," 92
" St Martin's Summer," 54
" St Stephen," 61
"Stella," 30, 51
Stephens, F. G., Article, in the
" London Review," on the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood by, 104
Stepney, Miss Catherine Muriel
Cowell, Portrait of, 58
Stem, Mrs J., Portrait of, 58
Stibbard, Mrs, Portrait of, 57
" Still for a Moment," 56
"Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!" 57
Stuart- Wortley, Mrs C, Portrait of,
59
Sullivan, Sir A., Portrait of, 60
"Swallow ! Swallow ! " 30, 49
"Sweet Emma Moreland," 60
"Sweetest Eyes were ever seen,"
58
"Tares," The, 49, 93
Tennant, Miss Eveleen, Portrait of,
32, 56, 73 . ,
Tennyson, Lord, Portrait of, 59
Tennyson's Poems, Illustrations to,
92
"The Little Speedwell's Darling
Blue," 60
"The Moon is up, and yet it is
not Night," 59, 82
Thompson, Sir Henry, Portrait of,
58
Thorpe, Dorothy, Portrait of, 58
Thwaites, D., Portrait of, 58
"Time the Reaper," 61

" Times," The, Attack on Millais led
by, 103, 105; Letter of Mr
Ruskin to, 106
"Tribe of Benjamin seizing the
Daughters of Shiloh," The, 23, 39
Trollope, Anthony, Comment on
Illustrations by Millais for "Orley
Farm," 94
" Trust me," 47
Tweeddale, the Marchioness of, Por
trait of, 61
" Twins," 57
Uffizi Gallery, The, Portrait of Him
self, painted by Millais for, 33, 58,
73
" Unmerciful Servant," The, 93
" Urquhart Castle," 54, 82
" Vale of Rest," The, 16, 29, 46, 67,
82, in
" Vanessa," 52
"Victory, O Lord !" 54, 68
" Waif," A, 59, 65
" Waiting," 44
Waring, Charles, Portrait of, 58
Wertheimer, C. J., Portrait of, 60
Westminster, The Duchess of, Por
trait of, 73
"White Cockade," The, 47, 92
"Wicked Husbandman," The, 93
" Widow Bestowing her Mite," The,
23, 39, 52
"Widow's Mite," The, 52, 92
Wilson, Fleetwood, Portrait of, 58
Wimbome, Lord, Portrait of, 58
" Winter Fuel," 54, 82
" Wolf s Den," The, 48
"Woodman's Daughter," The, 15,
27, 42
Written Criticisms, Value of, 96
" Yeoman of the Guard," A, 20, 47,
56
"Yes," 57
" Yes or No," 54

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