The Bridesmaid, 1851
Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)
Oil on canvas

Sir John Everett Millais is an English painter, born in Southampton. He started to draw at the age of 4 years; and his parents supported his artistic inclinations, providing him with private art lessons with a Mr. Bessel. Encouraged by Mr. Bessel, the family came to London with an introduction to the President of the Royal Academy and in 1840 John Millais became the youngest student ever at the Academy.

In 1846, he exhibited his Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru at the RA. Along with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt he was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and was markedly influenced by them and by John Ruskin. His first Pre-Raphaelite picture Lorenzo and Isabella (1849), the banquet scene from the poem Isabella, or The Pot of Basil about ill-fated love by English poet Keats, figures in the Academy in 1849, where it was followed in 1850 by Christ in the House of His Parents (1849), Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (1849) which met the full force of the anti-Pre-Raphaelite reaction. In 1851, The Woodman’s Daughter (1851), Mariana (1851) and The Return of the Dove to the Ark (1851) are exhibited at the RA, but were poorly received. Four years later in Paris the same The Return of the Dove to the Ark and The Order of Release made a strong impression.

Millais executed a few etchings, and his illustrations in Good Words, Once a Week, The Cornhill, etc. (1857-64) place him in the very first rank of woodcut designers. In 1855, he married Euphemia (Effie) Charmers Ruskin, the divorcée of John Ruskin, who bore him 8 children; they appeared later on many of his pictures. Ruskin continued to praise the artist. Preoccupied with his social standing, Millais later abandoned the Pre-Raphaelite style, broke with John Ruskin, and began to cater to popular tastes.

The exquisite Gambler’s Wife (1869) and The Boyhood of Raleigh (1870) mark the transition of his art into its final phase, displaying brilliant and effective coloring and his effortless power of brushwork. The interest and value of his later works, largely portraits, lies mainly in their splendid technical qualities. A late painting Bubbles (1886), showing his grandson, William James, achieved huge popularity. Eventually he was made a baronet (1885) and became president of the Royal Academy (1896), was decorated with many foreign orders and awards. He died in 1896. Millais was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Mariana, 1851 Oil on canvas

A Souvenir of Valazquez, 1842 Oil on canvas

The Nest, 1887 Oil on canvas

deletereply sweetpotatoqueen wrote on Jan 10, ’09 I find a bit of whimsy in all the selections (except for the portrait of the young girl) I’ve always loved the richness of colors in the paintings of this time period. Thank you for sharing.

deletereply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 10, ’09 Another nice collection Laurita, odd you should chose these because I was reading about ”MARIANA” just yesterday, love that painting and was reading up on it. She is from Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure’. She was rejected by her fiancé after her dowry was lost in a shipwreck and is left to leave a solitary life. Just like the true romantic they all were; she loves him and yearns for him. The painting was originally shown with lines from Tennyson’s poem Mariana: She only said, ‘My life is dreary– He cometh not!’, ‘I am aweary, aweary–I would that I were dead!’………….these romantics!!! art and literature are littered with them 🙂 Lovely collection, thanks for sharing laurita

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jan 10, ’09 Loretta, thank you so much for giving me all this background about the Mariana painting.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jan 10, ’09 forgetmenot525 said She is from Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure’. She was rejected by her fiancé after her dowry was lost in a shipwreck and is left to leave a solitary life. Just like the true romantic they all were; she loves him and yearns for him. The painting was originally shown with lines from Tennyson’s poem Mariana: She only said, ‘My life is dreary– He cometh not!’, ‘I am aweary, aweary–I would that I were dead!’………….these romantics!!! art and literature are littered with them 🙂 Loretta, You just gave me a wonderful idea for Poetry Wednesday ! Love, Laurita.

deletereply gypsy4you wrote on Jan 10, ’09 I would go naked just to own some originals.

deletereply nemo4sun wrote on Jan 11, ’09 i love his use of color 🙂

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jan 11, ’09 The people in his paintings look so incredibly real.

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