Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

Sir John Everett Millais – the Allure of Scotland

Dr Alison Inglis

17-18 May 2017

Lecture summary:

The English artist, John Everett Millais (1829-1896) is best known as one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose highly detailed, un-idealised paintings - such as Christ in the House of his Parents (1849-1850) and Ophelia (1851-1852) - confronted mid-Victorian audiences with the idea of art as simply “truth to nature”. But Millais is also famous for his later paintings of Scotland that include images of that nation’s colourful history as well as its distinctive landscape. This lecture will examine the reasons behind Millais’ longstanding attachment to Scotland, focussing on the influence of his Scottish-born wife, Euphemia (“Effie”) Gray, whom he first met when she was still married to his patron, the art writer and critic, John Ruskin. It will also consider Millais’s love of sport – especially hunting and fishing – and the impact of these ‘manly’ and high status pursuits in shaping his experience and depiction of nineteenth-century Scotland’s countryside. Lastly, this lecture asks: to what extent did Millais introduce a new understanding of Scottish landscape, one that was anchored in a particular site, the historic county of Perthshire.

Slide list: 1. John Everett Millais, Self-portrait, 1881, Oil on canvas, Uffizi Gallery, Florence 2. John Everett Millais,The Black Brunswicker, 1859-60, Oil on canvas, Lady Lever AG, Liverpool 3. John Everett Millais, The Boyhood of Raleigh, 1870, Oil on canvas, Tate 4. John Everett Millais, William Ewart Gladstone, 1885, Oil on canvas, University of Oxford 5. John Everett Millais, Louise Jopling, 1879, Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London 6. John Everett Millais, Bubbles, 1885-86, Oil on canvas, Lady Lever Gallery, Liverpool 7. J. E. Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents (‘The Carpenter’s Shop’), 1849-50, oil on Canvas, Tate, London 8. John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-52, oil on canvas, Tate, London 9. John Everett Millais, Diana Vernon, 1880, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria 10. J. E. Millais,The Martyr of the Solway, 1871, Oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 11. John Everett Millais, Scotch Firs, ‘The silence that is in the lonely woods’ (Wordsworth), 1873 Oil on canvas, Private Collection 12. John Everett Millais, The Fringe of the Moor, 1874, Oil on canvas, Johannesburg Art Gallery 13. John E. Millais, Portrait of Effie Millais, 1873, Oil on canvas, Perth Museum and Art Gallery 14. John Everett Millais, Portrait of Effie Ruskin (née Euphemia Chalmers Gray), 1853 Watercolour on paper, Millais Family Collection 15. John Leech, Millais in the hunting field, c.1850s, Pen and ink with washes, Fitzwilliam Museum 16. Peter Graham, Rising Mists,1887, Oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales 17. John Everett Millais,Over the Hills and Far Away, 1875, Oil on canvas, Private Collection 18. John Everett Millais, Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru, 1846, oil on canvas, V&A Museum 19. John E. Millais, Lorenzo and Isabella, 1848-49, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 20. John Rogers Herbert, The Youth of Our Lord, 1847, oil on canvas, Guildhall Art Gallery 21. John Everett Millais, The Order of Release, 1852-53, oil on canvas, Tate Gallery, London 22. John Pettie, Jacobites 1745, 1874, Oil on canvas, Private Collection 23. Alexander Johnston, Flora MacDonald’s introduction to Bonnie Prince Charlie, Oil on canvas, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield 24. John Everett Millais, John Ruskin, 1853-54, oil on canvas, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

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25. John Everett Millais, Awful Protection against Midges (Scotland), 1853, Pen and sepia ink on paper, Private Collection 26. John Everett Millais, The Countess as Barber, July 25, 1853, Pen and brown ink on wove paper, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York 27. John Everett Millais, Waterfall at Glenfinlas, 1853, Oil on panel, Delaware Art Museum 28. John Everett Millais, Effie Ruskin, 1853, Oil on board, Wightwick Manor, The National Trust 29. John Everett Millais, News from Home, 1856-57, Oil on panel, The Walters Art Museum 30. John Everett Millais, An Idyll of 1745, 1884, Oil on canvas, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool 31. John Everett Millais, Effie Deans, 1877, Oil on canvas, Private Collection 32. John Everett Millais, The Bride of Lammermoor, 1878, Oil on canvas, Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives 33. John Everett Millais, The Captive, 1881-82, Oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales 34. John Everett Millais, Flowing to the River, 1871, Oil on canvas, Private Collection 35. John Everett Millais, The Sound of Many Waters, 1876, Oil on canvas, National Trust of Scotland, Fyvie Castle 36. Peter Graham, A Spate in the Highlands, 1866, Oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 37. Peter Graham, After the Massacre at Glencoe, 1889, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria 38. Keeley Halswelle, The Heart of the Coolins, Isle of Skye, 1886, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria 39. John Everett Millais, ‘The Tower of Strength that stood / Four Square to all the winds that blew’ (Tennyson), 1878-79, Oil on canvas, Millais family collection 40. John Everett Millais, Dew-Drenched Furze, 1889-90, Oil on canvas, Millais Family Collection 41. John Everett Millais, Chill October, 1870, oil on canvas, Lord Lloyd Webber Collection 42. John Everett Millais, Autumn Leaves, 1856, oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 43. John Everett Millais, Spring or Apple Blossoms, 1858-59, Oil on canvas, Lady Lever Gallery, Liverpool 44. John Everett Millais, Winter Fuel: ‘Bare ruined choirs, where once / The sweet birds sang’ (Shakespeare), 1873, Oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 45. John Everett Millais, Lingering Autumn : ‘No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace/ As I have seen in one autumnal face’ (Donne), 1890, Oil on canvas, Lady Lever Art Gallery 46. John Everett Millais, St Martin’s Summer, 1878, Oil on canvas, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 47. John Everett Millais, Christmas Eve, 1887, Oil on canvas, Private Collection 48. John Everett Millais, Glen Birnam, 1890-91, Oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 49. John Everett Millais, The Old Garden, 1888, Oil on canvas, Private Collection

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/

References:

John Guille Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, Methuen, London, 2 vols, 1899

William James (ed.), The Order of Release: the story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais, Murray, London, 1947

Mary Lutyens, Millais and the Ruskins, Vanguard Press, New York, 1967

Mary Lutyens and Malcolm Warner (eds), Rainy Days at Brig O’Turk: The Highland Sketches of John Everett Millais, Westerham, 1983

Leslie Parris (ed.), Pre-Raphaelite Papers, Tate Gallery, London, 1984

Leslie Parris (ed.), The Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1984 (1994 ed).

J. N. P. Watson, Millais: Three Generations in Nature, Art & Sport, The Sportsman’s Press, London, 1988

Peter Funnell et al., Millais’ Portraits, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, London, 1999

Robert Hewison, Ian Warrell and Stephen Wildman, Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London 2000

Elizabeth Prettejohn, The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, Princeton, 2000

Debra N. Mancoff (ed.), John Everett Millais: Beyond the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Yale University Press, London and New Haven, 2001.

Allan Staley, Christopher Newall et al., Pre-Raphaelite Vision: Truth to Nature, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 2004

Paul Barlow, Time Present and Time Past: The Art of John Everett Millais, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershott, 2005

Christine Riding, John Everett Millais, Tate Publishing, London, 2006

Jason Rosenfeld and Alison Smith, Millais, exh. cat., Tate Publishing, London, 2007.

Tim Barringer, Jason Rosenfeld and Alison Smith, Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., Tate Publishing, London, 2012

Jason Rosenfeld, John Everett Millais, Phaidon, London, 2012