MILLAIS - John Everett Millais PRA (1829-96)
Last updated | 28/09/2010
Prominent Pre-Raphaelite Painter with Perthshire
Connections
Perth Museum & Art Gallery owns three oil paintings by
Millais and some engravings of his works. These are:
- Portrait of Effie, oil on canvas, 1873
- Waking (also known as Just Awake), oil on canvas, 1865
- Portrait of Sir Robert Pullar, oil on canvas, 1896
- Waking (also known as Just Awake), engraving on
paper
- The Order of Release 1745, mezzotint print on paper, 1856
- Christmas Eve, etching on paper, 1889
WHO WAS MILLAIS?
Millais was one of the group of painters known as the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They re-invigorated British art in the
mid-19th century with new ideas about subject, composition and
techniques. Millais later achieved great success as a figurative,
portrait and landscape painter.
WHAT'S HIS LINK WITH PERTH & KINROSS?
Millais' connection with Perthshire is through his
marriage to Euphemia Chalmers Gray, known as Effie, a member of the
local Gray family of Bowerswell. She was formerly married to John
Ruskin. Effie married Millais in 1855 in the drawing room at
Bowerswell, and they lived for a time at Annat
Lodge nearby.
Bowerswell House was refurbished as a residential home for the
elderly as Perth's memorial to those who served during the Second
World War. The grounds have been extensively built on since. Annat
Lodge is a private residence and has been extensively remodelled
internally since Millais' time there.
A number of his famous Pre-Raphaelite works feature elements of the
local scenery and buildings. These include A Dream of the
Past :Sir Isumbras Crossing the Ford (1857, Lady
Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside) which features the former (and now
demolished) old Bridge of Earn, and The Vale of Rest
(1858-9, Tate, London) which combines elements of Bowerswell's
garden and Kinnoull Kirk. Other of his works, such as Autumn
Leaves (1855-6, Manchester City Art Gallery) relied on local
children to sit as his models.
In his late career, Millais increasingly painted landscape
subjects. The scenery of Perthshire and the River Tay feature
widely in his work. Millais was a frequent visitor to the area
around Dunkeld and Dalguise for many years, usually between the
months August and January for painting, shooting and fishing
trips.
CHILL OCTOBER
One of his most famous Perthshire landscapes is Chill
October (Private Collection) which was painted on a backwater
of the Tay near Kinfauns in 1870. Millais set his easel on a raft
which was moored in the rushes and the canvas was stored overnight
in a nearby railwayman's hut. It is reputed that when the
picture was exhibited in London with a price tag of several hundred
pounds, the railway porter who had helped Millais carry it to his
hut during its creation on learning of the price retorted that he
wouldn't have paid half a crown (about 12.5 pence) for it.
Chill October was on loan to Perth Museum and Art Gallery
from 1937 until 1990 when its owner withdrew it and it sold at
auction for a then world record price for a work by Millais. A
reproduction of the painting was amongst Vincent van Gogh's
possessions.
Millais' Portrait of Sir Robert Pullar, the celebrated
Perth businessman was painted by public subscription to mark the
sitter's knighthood. It is the last painting completed by Millais
before his death.
FURTHER READING
There are a number of books which deal specifically with the
fascinating if somewhat tortuous relationship between Millais,
Effie and Ruskin, and include the following: The Order of
Release, the Story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett
Milais told for the first time in their unpublished
letters, by William James (John Donald, London, 1947),
Millias and the Ruskins by Mary Lutyens (John Donald,
London, 1967), The Ruskins and the Grays by Mary Lutyens
(John Donald, London, 1972), and Effie A Victorian
Scandal, From Ruskin's Wife to Millais' Muse by Merryn
Williams (Book Guild Publishing, Brighton, 2010)
Millais' work has featured in many major exhibitions, most
recently at Tate Britain in 2007-07.
