ART “4”
“2”-DAY 08 June
v.5.50 |
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1829 MILLAIS |
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Died on 08 (04?) June 1674:
Jan Lievens Lievenszoon
van Oude, Dutch painter, draftsman, and printmaker,
born on 24 October 1607. — His work has often suffered by comparison with that of Rembrandt, with whom he was closely associated from 1625 to 1631. Yet Lievens’s early work is equal to that of Rembrandt, although in later years he turned more towards a somewhat facile rendering of the international Baroque style favored by his noble patrons, thus never fully realizing his early promise. Nonetheless, he became a renowned portrait painter and draughtsman, and his drawings include some of the finest examples of 17th-century Dutch portraiture in the medium. — Lievens was a painter of portraits and religious, allegorical and genre subjects. He was a friend and contemporary of Rembrandt and a student of Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. Then he shared a studio with Rembrandt in Leiden in the later 1620s: many works of this period show one influencing the other. Lievens went to England, probably in 1632 after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, but he was in Antwerp by 1635, where he was influenced by the courtly style of Van Dyck. He returned to Holland in 1639 and became a successful painter of portraits and allegories. Raising of Lazarus (1631) is a good example of his works. — Jürgen Ovens was a student of Lievens. — LINKS — Constantijn Huygens (1627, 99x84cm) _ Constantijn Huygens was secretary to stadholder Frederick Henry prince of Orange [29 Jan 1584 – 14 Mar 1647] and as such had a great deal of influence. Around his neck hangs a seal for using with sealing wax. In this painting he is also wearing clothes that were fashionable in the 1620s: a black doublet, velvet britches with a long black coat over the top, a hanging pleated ruff and a broad-rimmed felt hat. Lievens had placed Huygens against a dark background. The only color in the painting comes from the red chair. Huygens extensively described his relationship with Lievens. According to Huygens's autobiography, Lievens was nineteen years old when he met Huygens. The artist was instantly captivated by the latter's face and wanted nothing more than to paint his portrait. In the winter of 1626, the young painter went to stay with Huygens in The Hague to begin work on the portrait. However, he got no further than the hands and clothes. In the spring Lievens returned to finish the painting. Huygens was very pleased with his portrait. 'I have naturally wide-open, large and bulging eyes. Their distinctive shape is usually a symptom of weak eyesight...', is how Huygens described is own eyes. Aided by this description, the portrait was identified in 1936 as the portrait of Huygens by Jan Lievens. Lievens painted Huygens's portrait in two phases. During the first phase he painted the body, only later filling in the face. The young artist had trouble with Huygens's face. From X-rays of the painting we can see that the face was at first turned towards the viewer. Lievens changed the painting later on. Huygens is now looking to the side. Because Huygens's body and face were not painted at the same time, the scale is not entirely accurate. The head is too small and the hands are somewhat long. Lievens's contact with Huygens did not do him any harm. His friend and colleague Rembrandt also benefited from this connection. In their early years, Lievens and Rembrandt were both students of Pieter Lastman and worked closely together for a time. Through Huygens, Rembrandt was commissioned by Frederick Henry to paint a series of Passion scenes. He also painted the portrait of Frederick Henry's predecessor as stadholder, his older brother Maurice prince of Orange [13 Nov 1567 – 23 Apr 1625]. _ There is also a portrait of Constantijn Huygens (1672) by Netscher [1639 – 15 Jan 1684]. — Rembrandt van Rijn (1630, 57x45cm) _ This young man, fixing us with his attentive gaze, is almost certainly Rembrandt, depicted at an early age, but recognizable by his rusty curls. The young artist is dressed in fantasy costume dress, wearing a cap and gorget. He has a light scarf around his neck. Lievens applied Rembrandt's style, using dark color and a highly distinctive chiaroscuro. Lievens scratched the subject's curls into the paint, just as Rembrandt had in a Self-portrait at an Early Age (1628, 23x19cm). — Poet Jan Vos — Samson and Delilah (1630, 131x111cm) _ Samson lies sleeping, meek as a lamb, in the lap of his mistress Delilah. She is wide awake, gesturing to a man in the background. Delilah wants him to cut off Samson's long hair. The man is still hesitating. The light falls on Samson's defenseless shoulder and Delilah's evil-intentioned face. The figures have been painted in half-length. There is an oil sketch probably made in preparation for this painting; in the sketch the figures are full-length. Rembrandt also painted Samson a number of times in this period. Rembrandt and Lievens worked closely together for a time. Their painting styles were therefore similar. Several Rembrandtesque details can be found in this painting. The woman's lemon-yellow dress for instance is painted in impasto: the under layer has been applied very thickly. Rembrandt also often used the same 'thick' painting technique. A few curls have been scratched into Samson's hair; the under layer is visible here. Rembrandt also regularly did this, using this technique for the first time in his 1628 Self Portrait. — Vanitas Still Life (1625, 91x120cm) _ A pile of old books and a lute lie untidily on a stone slab. In the background are two globes. In the foreground a small still life picturing a jug, a glass and a loaf of bread has been painted within the still life. For a long time it was unclear who had painted this picture. It was attributed to 'Rembrandt's circle'. After a comparison with paintings by Jan Lievens, the still life was finally attributed to the latter. The thick, tattered books are almost identical to other books painted by Lievens. The books were clearly painted by Lievens. On the left, at the bottom of the pile is a book with a compressed spine. This book can be seen in paintings of the evangelist Mark in the Städtische Kunstsammlungen in Bamberg, Germany. The small still life in the foreground was added at a later date when the paint was already dry. This was probably by someone other than Jan Lievens. This still life is painted more finely than the rest of the picture. Judging by the style it is believed to have been painted by Jan Jansz. den Uyl. 'Uyl' is the old spelling of the Dutch word for 'owl'. In the reflection on the pewter jug a small owl can just be seen: perhaps this is the concealed signature of the artist Den Uyl. This painting is similar to another still life by Lievens. In the other painting, apart from the books and musical instruments, there is also a skull, a candle and an hourglass. These are clear references to Vanitas, the transience of earthly existence. Although these articles are not featured in this painting, this is probably also a Vanitas still life. If so, the books and musical instruments refer to the fleeting nature of music and earthly knowledge. X-ray photographs have revealed that Lievens had first painted something else on this panel. A head of a woman can be discerned, dressed in the fashion of the 1620s. This may have been an unsuccessful portrait. In any case, Lievens turned the panel through 90° and started again. The colors in the still life indicate that the painting must have been made after 1620. It was then that it became fashionable to paint in one color - monochrome. — A Girl (1633, 62x 48cm) _ A characteristic early painting of the artist from his Leiden period. It is certainly not a portrait, probably it is a fragment of a larger composition, perhaps Mary from an Annunciation. — Petrus Egidius de Morrion (1637, 84x59cm) _ The painting was made in Antwerp and it clearly shows the influence of Flemish painters. — A Man (63x48cm; 1/3 size — ZOOM to 2/3 size) |
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Died on 08 June 1956: Marie
Laurencin, Paris painter, stage designer, and illustrator,
etcher, and lithographer, born on 31 October 1885. — After studying porcelain painting at the Sèvres factory (1901) and drawing in Paris under the French flower painter Madelaine Lemaire [1845–1928], in 1903–1904 she studied at the Académie Humbert in Paris, where she met Georges Braque and Francis Picabia. In 1907 Laurencin first exhibited paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, met Picasso at Clovis Sagot’s gallery and through Picasso was introduced to the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Laurencin and Apollinaire were soon on intimate terms, their relationship lasting until 1912. — She was born and died in Paris. She studied at the Académie Humbert, where Braque was a fellow student. She met Picasso, André Salmon, and Apollinaire; she was influenced by Picasso and Matisse, and began to paint pictures mainly of sloe-eyed girls in a decorative, arabesque-like style. She painted Apollinaire, Picasso and their Friends (1909). Though never a true Cubist, she was included at Apollinaire's request in the first group manifestation of Cubism at the Salon des Indépendants 1911. She spent 1914-1920 in Spain and Germany, then returned to Paris. She ilustrated a number of books with etchings, lithographs, or watercolors; she also designed sets and costumes for the ballet and the theater, including Diaghilev's Les Biches in 1924, and dresses and textiles for the couturier Poiret, etc. — LINKS — Portraits (Marie Laurencin, Cecilia de Madrazo and the Dog Coco) (1915, 33x46cm; 376x512pix, 14kb) — Les Biches: Costume for two girls (26x20cm; half-size) — Girl with Bouquet (23x18cm; half-size) — Three Girls and a Dog (33x27cm; 1/3 size) — Le Poney (28x21cm; half-size) — La Duchesse de Longueville (épreuve) (35x30cm; 1/3 size) — Danse (La Guitare) (24x27cm; full size) — Bacchante (1911; 575x718pix, 165kb) — Artemis (1908) — The Fan (1919, 31x30cm; 512x506pix, 26kb) — Three Girls and Two Dogs (344x425pix, 17kb) — Deux femmes en concert (1935, 50x65cm; 383x500pix, 40kb) — 4 images on one page: Mother and Child (1928; 400x325pix, 30kb) \ Women in the Woods (1913; 400x422pix, 47kb) \ Three Women (330x400pix, 29kb) \ Girls at Play (1913; 347x616pix, 46kb) |
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Born on 08 June 1829: John
Everett Millais, British Pre-Raphaelite
painter who died on 13 August 1896. — {Un pessimiste dirait d'un Millais
qu'il est mi-laid, un optimiste qu'il est mi-beau} — He was born in Southampton. His family was of French descent. In 1838 he attended Henry Sass' Drawing School and the Royal Academy in 1840. While still a youth, he won various medals for his drawings. His first painting was Pizzarro Seizing the Inca of Peru (1846). With Rossetti and Hunt, he founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. The influence of this movement was first discernible in his Isabella of 1849. Ophelia, begun in the summer of 1851 and exhibited the following year at the Royal Academy, markes the culmination of Millais' youthful period. Endowed with a virtuoso technical skill and encouraged by Ruskin, he rapidly outstripped his Brotherhood colleagues and won lasting fame. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1863 and served as President in 1896. Millais' works never failed to elicit praise. His remarkable technique lent his canvases a unique distinction, particuarly in his last paintings, long after the exhilaration of the radiant Pre-Raphaelite period had died away. Towards the end of his life, he turned to portraiture. He was also a fine illustrator. Millais died in London. — Millais was born in Southampton and educated in art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. At the age of 17 he exhibited at the academy his Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru (1846), then considered one of the best history paintings shown that year. In 1848 he and two other English painters, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt, formed a brotherhood of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelites. Millais's first Pre-Raphaelite painting, the scene Lorenzo and Isabella (1849), recalls the manner of the early Flemish and Italian masters. Beginning in the early 1870s, he created many portraits of British personalities, famous in his time. He was a careful artist who paid strict attention to detail, unusual composition, and clarity. In much of his later work he succumbed to the Victorian taste for sentiment and anecdotal art. — A child prodigy in art, Millais entered the Royal Academy Schools at age 11, and exhibited at the RA from age 17. There he became friends first with Holman Hunt, and afterwards Rossetti, and these three founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Millais produced the most well-known portrait of the famous critic in 1854, and incidentally married the wife of Ruskin after the latter's marriage was annulled. He thrived at the Royal Academy, becoming ARA as early as 1853, then RA and finally, in the year of his death, President of the Academy. However, his art became more popular, and he turned to pictures of society ladies, little girls, and fashionable lovers. His Saint Isumbras at the Ford, showing the knight and two oversweet children on an oversize horse, induced the young Frederick Sandys to draw a famous caricature featuring Millais as the knight, Rossetti and Holman Hunt as the children, and the donkey as John Ruskin. Some of Millais's best paintings are Ophelia, The Vale of Rest, The Blind Girl, Autumn Leaves, Lorenzo and Isabella, Saint Isumbras, The Black Brunswicker, Return of the Dove to the Ark, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Convalescent, Brighteyes. — Millais was 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 artiSaint 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. |
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— Born into an affluent middle class family in Southampton,
Millais was a naturally talented artist with an engaging, unspoiled personality.
He became the youngest student ever at the R.A. Schools when he arrived
there aged 11, and the youngest to complete the course five years later.
Technically he was extremely competent and was the star student, but he
was criticized for lacking a certain breadth of imagination and vision,
which is ironic given his future as a Pre-Raphaelite. For the Summer Exhibition of the R.A. in 1849 he painted Isabella, a story of passion, jealousy and murder from a poem by Keats after a story by Boccaccio. Millais depicted all these elements in Italianate style with intricate symbolic metaphors worked through both colors and objects: the passion flower hints at Isabella's true nature, while the blood orange she holds shows her passion will end in spilt blood, and a hawk ripping a white feather to pieces indicates the cruel nature of her two brothers, who go on to murder her lover. The work was generally well received, particularly for its early Renaissance quality of composition, colorings and slightly flat perspective. The following year Millais painted himself into the furore that surrounded his picture Christ in the Carpenter's Shop. He lost a lot of the kudos he had gained previously as the Academy's most gifted student and aroused public doubts about his personal religious leanings. His other paintings of the time took themes from William Shakespeare; in Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, Millais tried his first major painting out of doors. Painted on a pure white ground the colors sing out in true Pre-Raphaelite fashion. The painting went to the B.A. in April 1850 where it was bought for £50. The other Shakespearean painting, which excited him more in concept, was Ophelia, one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite works of all. This shows Ophelia floating down the river into which she has cast herself, feeling rejected by Hamlet. Her hair fans out in the stream, a necklace of violets around her neck and a loose bouquet of many different flowers drifting away from her slightly raised hands. All of these in Victorian flower lore contain meaning or are mentioned by Shakespeare in Hamlet. The plants on the riverbank show a typical selection of flowers and plants from an English summer hedgerow, all painted in precise detail. After casting around for a suitable location for the painting, he finally chose a quiet spot on the Hogsmill River (a tributary of the Thames) at Ewell in Surrey. Much of the walk was painted outdoors on the riverbank, greatly to the annoyance of a pair of swans who disputed the territory and drove Millais to near distraction. For convenience he took lodgings at Surbiton Hill, a few miles away, with his friend Holman Hunt. For the 1851 R.A. Exhibition Millais produced three paintings, one of which, The Woodsman's Daughter, proved a great success and laid the foundations for his election to become an Associate of the Academy in November 1853, at age 24 the earliest possible age. Only Sir Thomas Lawrence was elected younger. He then exhibited The Huguenot, a work showing a Catholic girl and her Huguenot lover on the day of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris, at the R.A. Exhibition in 1852. Interestingly this religiously-themed picture was conceived at the same time at Worcester Park Farm that Holman Hunt was developing ideas for The Light of the World. It was clearly an anti-Catholic picture painted at a time when religious paranoia over the intentions of the Pope were rife in England. The painting further cleared any popish doubts lingering over his earlier work The Carpenter's Shop. In 1853 Millais was invited to join the Ruskins on holiday in Scotland, with the intention of painting two portraits, one of John Ruskin and another of his wife Effie, who had previously posed for him for The Order of Release. Millais stayed with them in the Trossacks for almost four months, in the course of which he painted the definitive picture of John Ruskin: he set him standing by a small but fast running stream with a background of interesting geological rocks and plants. The work took a long time as it was so meticulously painted, with pedantic attention to even the smallest details of Nature - in keeping, of course, with Ruskin's ideals. Soberly dressed in black, Ruskin holds his hat by his side and stares with a pensive but pleasant expression on his face. Had he any idea that at the same time the young artist was falling in love with his wife, and furthermore the feelings were reciprocated, Ruskin might well have canceled the project. In due course the Ruskins were to divorce. In the mid-1850s Millais's style began to change; he continued with the Pre-Raphaelite attention to detail but changed his theme to ill-fated lovers, which suited his public and also his private state of mind until he was able to claim Effie as his own: this he was able to do on 03 July 1855 after her scandalous divorce from Ruskin. |
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same year Millais decided to embark on a painting that was beautiful in
its own right without any attempt to tell a story. His models were four
young girls, all under 13 years of age, chosen for their youth and beauty.
They were to be shown standing around a pile of gently smoldering autumn
leaves which they had just collected from their garden. The painting, which
became known as Autumn
Leaves, was designed to evoke a mood and a feeling of the transience
of life and beauty - all is doomed to eventual decay, even the greatest
innocence and beauty is overwhelmed by the passage of time. The painting
is considered to be Millais's masterpiece. He wanted the picture to awaken
the deepest religious reflections with its solemn air and restrained coloring.
The work was influenced personally by Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of whose
works he was illustrating at the time, in particular by his poem The
Princess. Autumn and dead leaves are favorite images of the poet. The painting was sold, sight unseen, for £700 before the R.A. Exhibition opened, to a collector from Bolton. He didn't like it and swapped it soon after with a Liverpool collector for three unremarkable paintings. The general feeling about the painting was that it was nice enough but what was it all about? Millais was anticipating the Impressionists and the public was not ready and the response was generally disappointing. So, he returned to his more accessible (and saleable) narratives of lovers, and as a result by 1856 Millais was the most successful painter in England. In testimony to this, the Academy Exhibitions of the mid to late 1850s are full of imitations of his work. In the 1860s Millais broadened out his style until it lost all resemblance to the work of the early Pre-Raphaelites. Having started out as a young firebrand, Millais became a stalwart establishment figure - even becoming a baronet always faithful to the dictates of the R.A. He regularly showed at Academy exhibitions and became so influential there that he was made President in 1896, the same year that he died." ^ — Millais was born in Southampton, the son of John William and Emily Mary Millais. His father came from a well-known Jersey family, and his mother nee Evamy came from a prosperous family of Southampton saddlers. Emily Millais had been married previously to one Enoch Hodgkinson, by whom she had two sons. By her marriage to John William Millais she had, as well as John Everett a daughter, and another son William Henry, who was the close companion of his famous younger brother throughout his life, and a well-known painter of watercolors The family initially moved back to Jersey and then to London in 1838, specifically to further the artistic education of their precocious son. Armed with a letter of introduction they visited Sir Martin Archer Shee, the President of the Royal Academy. As a result of this meeting Millais became the youngest ever student at the Royal Academy Schools in the summer of 1840. He was known at the RA Schools as ‘The Child,’ and his talent caused considerable jealousy amongst fellow students. Millais was very thin, extremely agile, and physically brave, and was well-able to cope with the bullying he encountered at this time. At the RA Schools he met William Holman Hunt, who became a lifelong friend, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. From the meeting of these three youthful idealists the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born. Millais was by far the most naturally gifted of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His early paintings in the Pre-Raphaelite style were amazingly accomplished for such a young artiSaint He produced pictures which were minutely observed, with a painstaking attention to detail, which meant that painting them was a slow and laborious process. He would typically paint landscape backgrounds in the summer, and add figures in the foreground in his studio during the winter. Each of his pictures was also the result of a large number of detailed preparatory drawings. He went to considerable trouble and expense, even as an impecunious young artist to find the right props, a notable example of this being the dress worn by Ophelia, for which he paid four pounds a considerable sum at that time. The first paintings exhibited at the RA by Millais and the other Pre-Raphaelites were initially greeted with derision, followed by vicious critical attacks, the most notorious of these being that by Charles Dickens, on the famous early painting Christ in The House of His Parents, exhibited at the RA in1850, in which Dickens spoke of the young Jesus as ‘a hideous wry-necked blubbering boy.’ It is difficult for us to understand today why this particular work was felt to be so objectionable, but the depiction of the family of Christ as ordinary people was regarded as very disrespectful. When it emerged that this group were called the Pre-Raphaelites, and that they did not agree with the commonly held view that Raphael was the greatest artist of all time critical attacks on them reached a crescendo. |
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a result of these attacks John Ruskin, the foremost art critic of his day
was asked to intervene, which he did writing a letter to The Times
on behalf of the young artists. From this intervention came the meeting
between Ruskin and Millais, which was to result in the most famous sexual
scandal of the day. Ruskin had married Euphemia Chalmers Grey, daughter
of a Scottish family living near Perth. Ruskin, his wife, and Millais set
off together on a holiday in Scotland, and a strong attraction developed
between Effie Ruskin and Millais. It transpired that Ruskin had not consummated
the marriage. It is amazing for us today to learn that Effie knew that something
was missing from her marriage, but that she was so innocent she did not
know what it was. Following an acrimonious and notorious divorce case, Effie
married Millais, and rapidly produced eight children. It is interesting
to note that the publicly-humiliated Ruskin had the generosity of spirit
to continue to provide critical support for the artiSaint The Move Away From The Pre-Raphaelite Style. The marriage of the John and Effie Millais proved to be a catalyst in the evolution of his style which started in the early 1860s. Millais said that it was no longer economically possible for him to spend the whole day painting an area ‘no larger than a five shilling piece.’ Thus he changed to a broader, looser, more spontaneous style of painting, with a strong element of sentiment, which was perfectly in keeping with the popular taste of the day. This change has been seen by many critics as a great artist selling-out, and becoming a mere populiSaint These attacks persist to this day. Millais also became one of the most successful portrait painters of Victorian Britain. Some of these portraits are extremely successful by whichever criteria they are judged. Physical likenesses are, it goes without saying, excellent, and the best portraits as well as being wonderfully painted, are brilliantly successful in illustrating the character of the sitter. In the painting Twins, of 1876 Millais produced a portrait of the identical daughters of a wealthy manufacturer. The markedly different characters of the confident and assertive Kate, and the more nervous introverted Edith are illustrated wonderfully well. The portrait of Tennyson is dramatic and powerful, and is quite simply a masterpiece. None of this is to say that the later portraits are of uniform quality. The famous painting of the dying Disraeli is a lost opportunity, and some of the pictures of children are overly-sentimental pot-boilers. The later paintings at their best are of great virtue. They are spontaneous, the use of paint is brilliant, with a creamy, textured surface. The reaction against Millais after his death was greatly exaggerated, and the blanket condemnation cannot be justified today. The Scottish Autumnal landscapes are also of very considerable merit. Millais The Man. Millais was in essence a great craftsman, and was not in any way an intellectual. He was a Victorian hearty, with a love of hunting, shooting, and fishing. Throughout his life he remained at heart a large enthusiastic schoolboy. He was a devoted father, and was particularly indulgent to his daughters. He had the gift of inspiring loyalty and affection amongst a wide circle of friends. Fellow artists who one would not expect to be sympathetic to Millais the artist regarded Millais the man with affection, Edward Burne-Jones was amongst his admirers. The artist himself did not feel that he had compromised his standards. In later life he said ‘ I may honestly say that I have never consciously placed an idle touch upon canvass; and that I have always been honest and hardworking.’ This is not the comment of a cynical, financially motivated individual. In later life Millais became very materially successful, earning over £30'000 a year. In 1878 the Millais family moved into a vast house at 2 Palace Gate, Kensington, which had been designed and built for their use, and as an affirmation of the success of John Everett. The Scottish landscapes I mentioned above were painted during visits to a baronial house in Perthshire which Millais rented. Much of the adverse criticism directed at the artist since his death has been motivated by disapproval of his material success and ostentatious display of his wealth. In 1885 Millais became the first English artist to be made a baronet. Millais The Last Years And After. In the early 1890s the wonderful facility to paint that the artist had used to such effect for over forty years started to decline. Millais was painfully aware of this situation. In 1892 he suffered from what was at first thought to be influenza, but turned out to be the onset of throat cancer — he had for many years been a constant pipe-smoker. In 1895 Millais gave an address to the Royal Academy in the absence of Leighton. He was very hoarse and giving the speech was a considerable ordeal. When Leighton died in January 1896, the dying Millais was elected PRA in his stead. His condition deteriorated and by July he was very ill. Queen Victoria contacted the PRA and asked if there was anything she could for him. Millais asked that the Queen received his wife, who had been excluded from court circles throughout their married life, due to the scandal attached to the annulment of her marriage to Ruskin — the now rather elderly Lady Millais was duly presented at court. After Millais died he was succeeded by Sir Edward Poynter as President of the Royal Academy. Since his death Millais the artist and man has consistently received severe handling from some critics. In reality the censure is based on disapproval of Millais the man, and of his material success. This is sad, unfair, spiteful, and unnecessary. John Millais was one of the great nineteenth century artists. — Anthony Trollope praised Millais as a book illustrator thus: “In every figure that he drew it was his object to promote the views of the writer whose work he had under-taken to illustrate, and he never spared himself any pains in studying the works so as to enable him to do so. I have carried on some of those characters from book to book, and have had my own ideas impressed indelibly on my memory by the excellence of his delineations.” |
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— LINKS
— Self-Portrait — Christ in the House of His Parents aka The Carpenter's Shop (1850, 86x140cm; 802x1265pix, 153kb _ ZOOM to 1603x2530pix, 477kb) _ When this work was first exhibited in 1850, the public found it somewhat offensive, and it was subject to a virulent attack by Charles Dickens, who called it mean, revolting, and repusive. Showing the holy family as ordinary people in a carpenter’s workshop was thought to be disrespectful, in a way we find difficult to imagine today. Queen Victoria was interested enough to demand a private viewing, and the young painter remarked (privately), that he hoped the experience had not proved too corrupting. The model for the head of Joseph was, yet again, Millais senior, though a carpenter was hired, so the muscular development of the arms would be accurate. The Virgin was modeled by the same young woman as Isabella in his earlier painting. The child Jesus' bloody hand is an omen of his ultimate crucifixion. The picture has many symbolic features which are no longer familiar to us today. — Peace Concluded (1856, 117x92cm; 925x719pix, 532kb _ ZOOM to 1688x1312pix, 2174kb) _ At first glance this appears to be a family portrait complete with realistic details of middle-class English decor. In fact, it is a staged scene of domestic harmony, celebrating the end of the Crimean War. The father, a wounded officer, holds a copy of The Times headlining the war's end. One daughter clasps his combat medal. On the mother's lap, four animals from the toy Noah's Ark represent the four belligerents: Britain (lion), Russia (bear), the Ottoman Empire (turkey), and France (rooster). The girl at the left holds a dove with an olive branch in its beak, a symbol of peace. Each member of the family tells us something about the meaning of the picture, by what they wear and by their actions. The father wears a dressing gown, indicating that he is convalescing, possibly from a concealed wound. He has just read the news of the war's end in the London Times newspaper, evidently with mixed emotions. Previously he had been reading a popular contemporary novel by William Thackeray (now lying behind his pillow), The Newcomes, about an exceptionally virtuous military man.The dog is an Irish wolfhound, an ancient British breed. Dogs usually symbolizes strength and fidelity to man, and also marital fidelity when portrayed together with a married couple. On his wife's face there is a resigned, melancholy gaze. Perhaps she is despondent about the gravity of her husband's condition. She wears an embroidered velvet gown and heavy gold jewelry, indicating that the family is well off and can afford such luxuries. The little girl on the right wears a delicate lace dress, and clutches a medal bearing Queen Victoria's profile that her father had obviously earned. This medal honored participants in any of the five major battles of the war. She has been playing with the toy animals on her mother's lap, which represent the four warring countries: Britain (lion), Russia (bear), the Ottoman Empire (turkey) and France (rooster). These animals belong to a toy Noah's Ark set, then commonly found in English households. (The rest of the animals are in the box on the floor). The other little girl holds a toy dove carrying an olive branch in its beak, symbolizing peace, but may also refer to the dove's role in the biblical story of Noah, when it returns to the Ark with proof of land. This child, too, wears a richly decorated velvet dress. The turkey carpet on the floor is another sign of the family's wealth and comfort. Behind the group is a large, spreading myrtle bush. Since it is an evergreen, myrtle symbolizes eternal love, in particular conjugal fidelity. The battle picture on the wall represents an engraving, by James Heath, of a renowned painting by John Singleton Copley, the Death of Major Pearson. As a young commander, Major Pierson led his troops to victory by repelling a French invasion, but lost his life in the conflict. Millais painted with oil paint on canvas, using very flat, thinly layered brushstrokes to create a smooth surface. The painting has been varnished, which not only protects the surface but also increases the brilliance of the colors. — Cymon and Iphigenia (1848; 586x800pix; 121kb just as good as 279kb ) _ “Cymon and Iphigenia” is a story from Bocaccio's Decameron. Cymon, the son of a nobleman of Cyprus, a handsome, though coarse and unlettered, youth, fell in love with the girl Iphigenia. The love made him a miracle; he was turned into an accomplished and polished courtier. — Lorenzo and Isabella (1849, 103x143cm) _ This very accomplished picture was painted when the artist was only 20, and the models for the various figures include the artist’s father, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the painter's rather disreputable friend Jack Harris appropriately kicking the dog. Worthy of note are the rather flat naive perspective, the sheer virtuosity of the painting, and the initials PRB on the back leg of Isabella’s chair. — Apple Blossoms aka Spring (1859, 111x173cm) (includes 8 women) _ Though known for his historical narrative paintings such as ‘Sir Isumbras at the Ford’, at about the same time Millais painted a small number of modern dress pictures without specific stories. They were ‘mood’ pictures intended to awaken ‘the deepest religious reflection’, to quote the artiSaint (1859) Also known as Spring. A This painting is a sequel to Autumn Leaves. Both paintings illustrate the transience of human life and the inevitable passing of youth and beauty. The scythe at the right is a 'memento mori', reminding us of the coming summer and harvest and the harvest reaped by time and death.' The girls, relaxing in an orchard of spring blossom, are tasting curds and cream. The underlying theme, however, is the transience of youth and beauty. This is expressed in the fragile bloom of adolescence, the wild flowers and the changing seasons. The scythe on the right indicates the inevitability of death. This type of picture, showing contemplative figures seated in an idyllic landscape, goes back to the ‘fête champêtre’ paintings of Titian and Giorgione. It anticipates the figure compositions of dreamy young women painted by Whistler in the 1860s. Spring was painted over a four-year period in which Millais worked in a number of orchard settings. The young girls,relaxing in an orchard of spring blossom, tasting curds and cream. However, the figure in the bottom right-hand corner - symbolic of death under an arched scythe - confronts the viewer with the notion of life's transience. At exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1859, the response was unfavourable and he had difficulty selling the work. The painting attracted very strong critical condemnation from The Times and The Atheneum, the latter maintaining that Millais 'dreaded distance.' The inclusion of a low grey stone preventing spatial disharmony wall somewhat confirms this but it seemed as though the critics ganged up on Millais. To the modern eye the painting looks exquisite. Effie Milais commented that of all her husband’s paintings to date, this one caused him the most problems, for instance he was forced to extend the bottom of the canvas. It is another comment on the transience of life with the analogy drawn between the young girls and the blossoms. The painting of the apple blossom was criticized for it’s coarseness at the time, though to modern eyes it seems an artistic tour de force. 'Spring', also known as 'Apple Blossoms', was painted by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Millais. He exhibited it at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1859. This was the most important venue of the Victorian art world and artists reserved their best works for showing there. The painting can be read on a number of different levels. On a literal level, Millais has painted a group of girls in a meadow, in front of an orchard full of apple trees in blossom. The girls are relaxing, seated or lying on the ground around a bowl of cream. One is pouring milk from a jug. Another is eating curds from a bowl. Bunches of flowers picked by the girls are placed in baskets on the ground. The painting is an example of Victorian realism, a modern scene, showing young girls in contemporary Victorian dress, enjoying a day in the country. The painting can also be read on another level. On the face of it, this is a picture about youth and beauty, but it has a deeper message. On the right is a scythe, hinting at the inner meaning of the picture. The scythe is a traditional symbol of death, associated with the figure of 'Death, the Grim Reaper', often depicted as a skeleton carrying a scythe. Millais's message is that even the youth and beauty of the girls will come to an end. Flowers fade, the seasons move on and the summer grass is cut down at harvest time. We know that thoughts of death were in Millais's mind when he first began work on Spring. He was also working on a picture of autumn, entitled Autumn Leaves. This also depicts beautiful young girls but here they are heaping leaves on a bonfire in autumn at twilight. The end of the day, the end of the year, the dead leaves and the smoke are all symbols of the transience of earthly life and the inevitability of death. Millais may have originally thought of the two pictures as a pair. They share the themes of the decay of beauty, the cycle of the seasons, the inevitability of change and of death. Though Millais did not write these ideas down about Apple Blossoms, he did write about Autumn Leaves that he “intended the picture to awaken by its solemnity the deepest religious reflection.” The same applies to Apple Blossoms. Unlike some of the early Pre-Raphaelite paintings, which are packed full of heavy symbols and coded references, this painting suggests its message quietly. The scythe is introduced casually placed to one side; it makes sense as a real object. Though it also operates as symbol, it does not disturb a naturalistic reading of the painting. — Autumn Leaves (1856, 104x74cm) _ This painting is of all the Millais paintings of the 1850s the most powerfully atmospheric-the viewer can almost feel the cool sharp evening, and smell the burning leaves. The twilight sky is brilliantly painted. The painting received critical, but not public acclaim. The young pretty girls and the burning of the leaves are an illustration of the transience of human life. The picture was painted in the garden of the Grey family home in Perth. Millais evokes autumn with a rich palette of reds, oranges, browns and yellows. At the centre, young girls burn fallen leaves on a bonfire, their faces lit by the warm firelight. The fallen leaves, the smoke, the setting sun and the season itself are all symbols of transience and mortality, reminding us that the girls, despite their youth, will also age and die. As in his painting of Spring (Apple Blossom) the symbolism is deliberate, Millais said he hoped this picture would ‘awaken by its solemnity the deepest religious reflection. — The Blind Girl (1856, 83x62cm) _ This painting is a very rare foray by the artist into the area of social comment. He is showing the poverty and humiliation of disabled people, in this instance the blind girl, at that time. The poverty of the girl is illustrated by her ragged clothes, and her tenuous means of earning a living by the concertina on her lap. The picture was painted at the Perth home of Effie Millais’s family the Greys, and the background is a combination of Sussex and Perth. Initially the work was badly received, and the painter who was well-aware of his exceptional talent thought that this was due to jealousy. In time The Blind Girl, became regarded as one of the core of great early Pre-Raphaelite paintings. _ This painting shows two beggar girls resting after a rain shower in the countryside, one of whom is unable to see the beauty of the rainbow behind her. The girls' poverty is shown by their clothes and by the concertina, used for begging, resting on the lap of the blind girl. The model for the blind girl was Millais' wife, Effie. Millais began this painting in the autumn of 1854 at Winchelsea in Sussex, and completed it two years later near his home in Perthshire, Scotland. Dante Gabriel Rossetti found it 'one of the most touching and perfect things I know'. Ruskin described it thus: 'The common is a fairly spacious bit of ragged pasture, and at the side of the public road passing over it the blind girl has sat down to rest awhile. She is a simple beggar, not a poetical or vicious one, a girl of eighteen or twenty, extremely plain-featured, but healthy, and just now resting, not because she is much tired but because the sun has but this moment come out after a shower, and the smell of grass is pleasant.' Soaking up the sun after a storm, the rosy-cheeked blind girl is oblivious to the glorious double rainbow. The beauty around her highlights the pathos of her situation. She feels the sun on her face and the tuft of grass in her hand but cannot see them. Her draped shawl makes her look like a Madonna and implies her virtue, while the rainbow suggests God's care, even for the most vulnerable. In a double rainbow the color sequence of the second rainbow is reversed. Millais originally got this detail wrong but later corrected it, making sure he was paid for his trouble. |
| ^
— The
Bridesmaid (1851, 28x20cm) _ This is the most powerfully erotic of the
early pictures. The bridesmaid passes a small piece of wedding cake through
the wedding ring a number of times. The superstition was that she would
then see a vision of her own future husband. The lovely girl has long luxuriant
dark red hair, flowing right down over her shoulders, and this in combination
with the phallic symbolism of the sugar caster produces a highly sexually
charged image. BUT the blossom on her breast is a symbol of virginity. On
a lesser point the artist was a great specialist in painting silver, with
its different shades and reflections. — Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (1850, 65x51cm) _ This is one of the very greatest of the early paintings. The subject comes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Act I, Scene 2), with the sprite Ariel leading Ferdinand to his master Prospero. The quality and detail of the painting of the grass and vegetation are difficult to credit, as is the painting of Ferdinand’s face and his clothing. The painting also creates a most mysterious and intriguing image. — Mariana in the Moated Grange (1851, 60x50cm) _ Note the sheer brilliance of these early paintings. She has often been described as ‘the lady with the aching back!’ Mariana takes a break from her embroidery, and miserably looks through the window. She has been rejected by her lover and feels tired of life. The stained glass has vivid colors and through the lower windows can be seen the trees and the leaves which are in themselves a bravura piece of painting. The velvet dress in deep blue velvet is wonderful, as is the shadowing of the unhappy face, and Mariana’s attractive figure. _ [read Millais's "Mariana": Literary Painting, the Pre-Raphaelite Gothic, and the Iconology of the Marian Artist] . _ The picture was inspired by this poem by Tennyson :
— Chill October (1870, 141x187cm) — Mercy - Saint Bartholomew's Day, 1572 — A Huguenot, on Saint Bartholomew's Day Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge (1852) — North-West Passage — James Wyatt and His Granddaughter Mary (1849) Wyatt (1774-1855) was a picture dealer and frame-maker; he was a prominent civic figure in Oxford and was Mayor of the city for 1842-1843. — Mrs James Wyatt and child. — The Eve of Saint Agnes (1863) — Trust Me — Message from the Sea (99x135cm) — Yes or No (900x649pix, 42kb) — No! (900x642pix; 42kb) — Yes (800x621pix, 65kb _ ZOOM to 1600x1242pix, 125kb) — Annie Miller (1854, 23x15cm) — The Death of Romeo and Juliet (1848; 355x600pix, 36kb) — Bubbles [child looks up at soap bubble he has blown.] _ The child is the artist's grandson. This picture became world famous as an advertisement for Pears soap. — A Dream of the Past - Sir Isumbras at the Ford (1857, 124x170cm) — The Romans Leaving Britain (1865, 46x70cm; 491x800pix, 80kb _ ZOOM to 736x1200pix, 80kb) _ This is a reduced version of a picture that Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, with a quotation from Holinshed's Chronicles to explain the subject. The picture represents an imaginary scene at the time when Roman occupying forces were withdrawing from Britain in the late fourth and early fifth centuries AD. A Roman legionary is bidding a passionate farewell to his British mistress, both of them knowing that they would never meet again. — The Crown of Love (1875, 128x87cm; 700x461pix, 53kb) _ The female model was Millais' daughter Alice. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy with the following quotation from George Meredith: O, might I load my arms with thee, Like that young lover of Romance, Who loved and gain'd so gloriously The fair Princess of France. Because he dared to love so high. He, bearing her dear weight, must speed To where the mountain touch'd the sky. So the proud king decreed Unhalting he must bear her on, Nor pause a space to gather breath, and on the height she would be won: And she was won in death. |
but
who would?}— He was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in
Paris from 1840, and he regularly visited the studio of Michel-Martin Drolling,
whose students included Paul Baudry, Jean-Jacques Henner, and Jules Breton. In
1845 Chaplin entered the Salon as a portrait and landscape painter with his Portrait
of the Artist’s Mother. His early works, from 1848 to 1851, are characterized
by a concern for realism which had been restored to fashion by the Second Republic:
he painted the landscape of the Auvergne, showing a regionalism that is found
also, for example, in works by Adolphe Leleux and Armand Leleux. Chaplin soon
rejected this early manner in favor of a more supple and gracious style that ensured
him fame as a portrait painter. His portraits of women, often half-length, with
half-clad models posed slightly erotically in misty settings, appealed to society
in the Third Republic and ensured his success, although his genre pictures are
the most important part of his painted work. As a decorator, Chaplin painted the
ceiling and panels over the doors of the Salon des Fleurs in the Tuileries in
1861 (destroyed since), as well as part of the decoration for the Salon de l’Hémicycle
in the Palais de l’Elysée. — LINKS
site safe for children 