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diff --git a/41648-0.txt b/41648-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e194091 --- /dev/null +++ b/41648-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,848 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41648 *** + +MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR + +EDITED BY--T. LEMAN HARE + + +MILLAIS + +1829--1896 + + + +"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES + + ARTIST. AUTHOR. + BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. + BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. + BOUCHER. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. + CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. + CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. + CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. + COROT. SIDNEY ALLNUTT. + DA VINCI. M. W. BROCKWELL. + DELACROIX. PAUL G. KONODY. + DÜRER. H. E. A. FURST. + FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. + FRA FILIPPO LIPPI. PAUL G. KONODY. + FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. + GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. + GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. + HOGARTH. C. LEWIS HIND. + HOLBEIN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. + INGRES. A. J. FINBERG. + LAWRENCE. S. L. BENSUSAN. + LE BRUN, VIGÉE. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. + LUINI. JAMES MASON. + MANTEGNA. MRS. ARTHUR BELL. + MEMLINC. W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE. + MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. + MILLET. PERCY M. TURNER. + MURILLO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + PERUGINO. SELWYN BRINTON. + RAEBURN. JAMES L. CAW. + RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. + REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. + REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. + ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. + RUBENS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + SARGENT. T. MARTIN WOOD. + TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. + VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. + WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. + WATTS. W. LOFTUS HARE. + WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. + +_Others in Preparation._ + + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--THE ORDER OF RELEASE. Frontispiece +(Tate Gallery) + +This is one of the pictures which Millais always reckoned among the +greatest of all his successes, and that it has many notable qualities +which justify his preference can certainly not be denied. It is +wonderful in its earnest and thoughtful realism, and it explains its +motive with a completeness that is most convincing. The expression on +the face of the woman who brings the order which frees her husband from +prison is singularly happy in its combination of tenderness for the +wounded Highlander, and triumph over the hesitating gaoler; and there +are many other little touches, like the joyous effusiveness of the dog, +and the unconsciousness of the sleeping child, which amplify and perfect +the pictorial story.] + + + +Millais + +BY A. LYS BALDRY + +ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR + + +[Illustration] + +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK + +NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Plate + I. The Order of Release, 1746 Frontispiece + At the Tate Gallery + Page + II. The Boyhood of Raleigh 14 + At the Tate Gallery + + III. The Knight Errant 24 + At the Tate Gallery + + IV. Autumn Leaves 34 + At Manchester Art Gallery + + V. Speak! Speak! 40 + At the Tate Gallery + + VI. The Vale of Rest 50 + At the Tate Gallery + + VII. Ophelia 60 + At the Tate Gallery + + VIII. The North-West Passage 70 + At the Tate Gallery + + + +[Illustration] + + +As a record of some half century of brilliant activity, and of +practically unbroken success, the life-story of John Everett Millais is +in many respects unlike those which can be told about the majority of +artists who have played great parts in the modern art world. He had +none of the hard struggle for recognition, or of the fight against +adverse circumstances, which have too often embittered the earlier years +of men destined to take eventually the highest rank in their profession. +Things went well with him from the first; he gained attention at an age +when most painters have barely begun to make a bid for popularity, and +his position was assured almost before he had arrived at man's estate. +He owed some of his success, no doubt, to his attractive and vigorous +personality, but it was due in far greater measure to the extraordinary +powers which he manifested from the very outset of his career. + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--THE BOYHOOD OF RALEIGH (Tate Gallery) + +It would not be inappropriate to describe the "Boyhood of Raleigh" as +the prologue to the romance of which the last chapter is written in the +"North-West Passage," for in both pictures the artist suggests the +fascination of the adventurous life. Young Raleigh and his boy friend +are under the spell of the story which the sailor is telling them, a +story evidently of engrossing interest and stimulating to the +imagination. The faces of the lads show how inspiring they find this +tale of strange experiences in lands beyond the sea.] + +For there was something almost sensational in the manner of his +development, in his unusual precocity, and in the youthful +self-confidence which enabled him to take a prominent place among the +leaders of artistic opinion while he was still little more than a boy. +So early was the proof given that he possessed absolutely uncommon +powers, that he was not more than nine years old when he began serious +art training; and so evident even then was his destiny that this +training was commenced on the advice of Sir Martin Archer Shee, the +President of the Royal Academy, to whom the child's performances had +been submitted by parents anxious for an expert opinion. The President's +declaration when he saw these early efforts, that "nature had provided +for the boy's success," was emphatic enough to dissipate any doubts +there might have been whether or not young Millais was to be encouraged +in his artistic inclinations; and that this emphasis was justified by +subsequent results no one to-day can dispute. + +The family from which Millais sprang was not one with any past record of +art achievement. His ancestors were men of action and inclined rather to +be fighters than students of the arts. They were Normans who had settled +in Jersey, and had for several hundred years been counted among the more +important landholders in that island, where at different times they held +several estates. From these ancestors Millais derived his energetic +temperament and that militant activity which enabled him in his career +as an artist to triumph signally over established prejudices--the +qualities which undoubtedly helped him to make his power felt even by +the people who were most opposed to him. + +He was born on June 8th, 1829, at Southampton, where his parents were +temporarily living, but his earliest years were spent in Jersey. It was +in 1835 that he began to show definitely his artistic inclinations; he +was at Dinan then with his parents and he amused himself there by making +sketches of the country and people with success so remarkable that even +strangers did not hesitate to recognise him as a budding genius. Three +years later this estimate was confirmed by Sir Martin Archer Shee, and +the boy was then sent to work at the art school which Henry Sass carried +on in Bloomsbury, a school which had at that time a considerable +reputation as a training place for art students, and in which most of +the early Victorian painters received their preliminary education. + +Soon after he entered this school Millais gave a very striking proof of +his precocious ability--he gained the silver medal of the Society of +Arts for a drawing of the antique, and an amusing story is told of the +sensation he created when he appeared at the prize-giving to receive his +award. The Duke of Sussex was presiding at the meeting, and to his +amazement, when the name of "Mr Millais" was called, a small child +presented himself as the winner of the medal. To amazement succeeded +admiration when a consultation with the officials of the Society proved +that this boy of nine was really the successful competitor, and the +presentation was received with great applause by the spectators of the +scene. + +After two years' work under Sass, with some study in the British Museum +in addition, he was admitted into the schools of the Royal Academy, and, +though his age then was only eleven, he began almost immediately to +prove how well he could hold his own in this new sphere of activity. +During the six years over which his studentship at the Academy extended +he won every prize for which he competed, and carried off finally the +gold medal for historical painting with a picture of "The Tribe of +Benjamin Seizing the Daughters of Shiloh." This was in 1847; in the +previous year he had made his first appearance as an exhibitor at the +Academy with an ambitious composition, "Pizarro Seizing the Inca of +Peru," which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. His most +ambitious effort at this period was, however, the design, "The Widow +Bestowing her Mite," which he produced in 1847 for the Westminster Hall +competition, a vast canvas crowded with life-sized figures which was +remarkable enough to have made the reputation of a far older and more +experienced painter. + +So far his progress had been without interruption. The rare brilliancy +of his student career had gained him the fullest approval of his +fellow-workers in art, and he was beginning his career as a producer +with every prospect of becoming immediately one of the most popular +artists of his time. Everything was in his favour; he had undeniable +ability, good health, and an attractive personality, and he had proved +in many ways that, young as he was, he could handle large undertakings +with sound judgment and complete confidence. Yet, with what seemed to be +his way smooth before him, he did not hesitate to risk his already +assured position in the art world by setting himself openly in +opposition to the opinions of practically all the men who were then +counted as the leaders of his profession. That he knew what might be the +penalty he would have to pay for this rebellion against the fashion of +the moment can scarcely be doubted, but he was by nature too strenuous a +fighter to be daunted by dangerous possibilities, and his convictions, +once formed, were always too strong to yield to any considerations of +expediency. + +In 1848, he and two friends of about his own age, Dante Gabriel +Rossetti, and William Holman Hunt, conceived the idea of making a +practical protest against the inefficiency of the work which was being +done by the more popular artists of the time. The three youths had come +under the influence of Ford Madox Brown, who with splendid sincerity was +labouring to realise an ideal based not upon fashion, but upon an +earnest desire for truthful expression, and by his example they were +induced to study a purer type of art than any they could see about them. +For this purer art they turned to the works of the Italian Primitives, +whose childlike unconventionality and unhesitating naturalism touched a +responsive chord in the natures of these youths who still retained some +of the simple faith in reality which is one of the charms of childhood. +They decided that for the future they would base their own practice +upon that of the early Italians, and that they would have none of the +artificialities of the age in which they found themselves. Their resolve +was a bold one, but the manner in which they proceeded to make it +effective was bolder still. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--THE KNIGHT ERRANT (Tate Gallery) + +It is generally recognised that the effective representation of the nude +figure imposes the severest test not only upon an artist's powers of +drawing and painting but upon his sense of æsthetic propriety as well. +The "Knight Errant" proves beyond dispute that Millais was able to pass +this test triumphantly, for the picture is a magnificent technical +achievement and is absolutely discreet in treatment. The subject, a lady +rescued from robbers by a wandering knight, is one which occurs +frequently in mediæval romance.] + +They organised an association, the title of which, "The Pre-Raphaelite +Brotherhood," significantly asserted the nature of their artistic aims, +and as the founders of this association they pledged themselves to seek +the inspiration of their art in those Italian painters who had lived +before Raphael was born, and whose sterling principles were abandoned by +Raphael and his successors. To the three founders of the Brotherhood +were joined two other painters, James Collinson, and F. G. Stephens, a +sculptor, Thomas Woolner and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's brother, William +Michael, who, being a writer, was given the office of secretary. The +Brotherhood, so constituted, was formally inaugurated in the autumn of +1848, and the members at once set to work to prove by their acts the +reality of their belief in the creed they had adopted. + +The first fruits of the movement were seen in the following spring at +the Academy where Millais, who was then, it must be remembered, not +quite twenty, exhibited his "Lorenzo and Isabella," a picture striking +in its originality and in its unusual power. What it implied was not, +however, immediately realised by the public; that the manner of the +painting made it very unlike those by which it was surrounded was +generally recognised, but most people, if they thought about the matter +at all, seem to have assumed that the painter had failed to bring +himself into line with the art of his time through youthful inexperience +rather than by deliberate intention. Time and practice, they considered, +would correct such deficiencies in taste as were apparent in the +"Lorenzo and Isabella," and when the lad had arrived at years of +discretion he would be the first to see the necessity for amendment. + +But the members of the Brotherhood, probably feeling that their initial +effort had not produced quite the effect intended, took other steps to +define their attitude. They started, in January 1850, a magazine called +_The Germ_, which was proffered as the organ of the new movement. It +was sufficiently uncompromising in its confession of faith, and neither +its text nor its illustrations were wanting in clearness of statement. +The magazine, indeed, was what it was intended to be, an open challenge +to all the advocates of the old order of things; and as such it was +taken by the people who saw it. It was only in existence for four +months, but even in that short time it did its work thoroughly, and put +an end to any doubts there were in the minds of art lovers and art +workers concerning the meaning of Pre-Raphaelitism; thenceforward +Millais and his friends had certainly no reason to complain of being +ignored. + +The attention which was given to the pictures they sent to the 1850 +Academy exhibition was, however, by no means what they desired, though, +doubtless, it must have been much what they expected. Millais exhibited +a "Portrait of a Gentleman and his Grandchild," "Ferdinand Lured by +Ariel," and "Christ in the House of His Parents"--better known as "The +Carpenter's Shop"--and these visible embodiments of the principles laid +down in _The Germ_ were received with an absolute storm of abuse. The +audacity of the young painters who sought by works of this character to +discredit the smug and artificial respectability of the art which was +then in vogue excited the critics beyond control and brought forth a +veritable orgie of virulent expostulation. + +Millais, with his mind made up and his fighting instinct fully roused, +was not the man to yield to clamour. He made no concessions, but, +loyally supporting the policy of the Brotherhood, showed at the Academy +in 1851 "The Woodman's Daughter," "Mariana in the Moated Grange," and +"The Return of the Dove to the Ark," all of which were as frank in their +Pre-Raphaelitism as any of the previous year's canvases, and all of +which were greeted with even more vehement disapproval by the literary +custodians of the popular taste. Every possible kind of +misrepresentation of the aims of the young painter and his friends was +employed to discredit their efforts, all sorts of base motives were +imputed to them; ridicule, specious argument, and insult were used in +turn to drive them from the course they had deliberately chosen. Appeals +were even made to the Academy to have the pictures, round which this +controversy was raging, removed summarily from the exhibition as things +unfit to be set before the eyes of the public. But fortunately the +courage of the Brotherhood was proof against everything which the +opposition could do, and neither abuse nor threats had any effect. Yet +Millais at the time suffered for his principles; paintings which had +been commissioned were thrown upon his hands, and his pictures almost +ceased to be saleable. He had every proof that his Pre-Raphaelitism was +commercially a mistake and that, if he persisted, the absolute marring +of his career as a popular painter, was more than likely, yet, so +stubborn was his conviction that he made no change in either his +principles or his practice. + +Happily, as time went on, the position of affairs began to improve; the +opposition exhausted itself by excess of violence, and able champions of +the movement took up the cudgels in defence of the young artists. One of +the most authoritative of these champions was Ruskin, who found in this +apparently forlorn hope infinite possibilities of artistic progress, and +whose declaration that the Pre-Raphaelites were laying "the foundations +of a school of art nobler than the world has seen for three hundred +years" generously expressed his sentiments towards the Brotherhood. He +took the trouble to study their art, and to analyse their motives, so +that he based his advocacy not upon vague sympathy but upon real +understanding of artistic principles which were sane and sound enough to +satisfy even his exacting demand for purity of æsthetic purpose. +That the ultimate success of Pre-Raphaelitism was due to his energetic +interposition cannot, of course, be claimed--the boldness and tenacity +of the artists who had adopted the new creed had more to do with the +improvement which was brought about in the popular attitude--but +Ruskin's counter attack upon the critics had a valuable effect, and +undoubtedly helped greatly to open the eyes of the public. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--AUTUMN LEAVES (Manchester Art Gallery) + +As an example of the quiet and unforced sentiment which characterises so +many of the pictures which Millais painted, this delightful composition +deserves particular consideration. It has a certain severity of design +and solemnity of manner, but in its suggestion of the sadness of autumn +there is no trace of morbid sentimentality and no kind of theatrical +effect. The picture is a sort of allegory expressed with exquisite +tenderness, and with a simple frankness of manner which is especially +persuasive.] + +It is interesting, too, to note that just at the moment when the attack +was fiercest the Royal Academy showed its faith in Millais by electing +him an Associate. He is said to have been the youngest student ever +received into the Academy schools, and he must have been one of the +youngest painters ever chosen as an Associate, for after his election it +was discovered that he had not reached the age at which, under the +Academy rules, admission to the Associateship was possible. So his +election had to be declared invalid and he had to wait some few years +longer--until 1853--for the official recognition of his claims. But it +must assuredly be counted to the credit of the Academy that such +readiness should have been shown to admit the ability of a young artist +who was openly in rebellion against the fashions of his time, and whose +work was by implication a condemnation of much that was being done even +by members of the Academic circle. + +His election in 1853 came more as a matter of course; by that date he +had won his way to a position which could scarcely be questioned even by +the bitterest opponents of Pre-Raphaelitism, and he had laid securely +the foundations of that remarkable popularity which he was destined to +enjoy for the rest of his life. It would have been hard, indeed, to deny +that he deserved whatever rewards were due to artistic merit of the +highest order, for his pictures had passed well beyond the stage of +brilliant promise into that of commanding achievement. His "Ophelia" and +"The Huguenot" in 1852, his "Order of Release" and "The Proscribed +Royalist" in 1853, and his exquisite "Portrait of Mr. Ruskin" in 1854, +are to be accounted as masterly performances which would have done full +credit to a painter whose skill had been matured by more than half a +lifetime of strenuous effort, and which, as the productions of a young +man who did not reach his twenty-fifth birthday until the summer of +1854, are of really extraordinary importance. The "Ophelia," "The +Huguenot," and "The Order of Release," can be placed, indeed, among the +most memorable expositions of his artistic conviction, and the "Portrait +of Mr. Ruskin" ranks with the "Ophelia" as one of the most astonishing +examples of searching and faithful study which can be found in modern +art. + +These pictures were followed closely by others not less notable--by "The +Rescue" in 1855, by "Autumn Leaves," "The Random Shot," "The Blind +Girl," and "Peace Concluded," in 1856, and by "Sir Isumbras at the +Ford," "The Escape of a Heretic," and "News from Home," in 1857. Of this +group "Sir Isumbras at the Ford" was the least successful, but "Autumn +Leaves," with its exquisite delicacy of sentiment, and those two +delightful little canvases, "The Blind Girl," and "The Random Shot," are +of supreme interest both on account of the depth of thought which they +reveal and of their splendid executive accomplishment. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--SPEAK! SPEAK! (Tate Gallery) + +To the man who has loved and lost, the vision of his lady appearing to +him as he lies awake at dawn seems so real and living that he begs her +to speak to him, and stretches out his arms to clasp what is after all +only a creation of his imagination. The dramatic feeling of the picture +is as convincing as its pathos; the painter has grasped completely the +possibilities of his subject, and he tells his story with just the touch +of mystery needed to give it due significance. The management of the +light and shade, and of the contrast between the warm lamplight and the +greyness of the early morning, is full of both power and subtlety.] + +Another great picture appeared in 1859--"The Vale of Rest," which +differed from most of the works which Millais had hitherto produced in +its larger qualities of handling and more serious symbolism. Its special +importance was not fully realised by the artist's admirers when it was +first exhibited, but Millais himself looked upon it as the best thing he +had done; and this opinion has since been generally recognised as +sufficiently well founded. He had not before shown so much solemnity of +feeling nor quite so complete a grasp of the larger pictorial +essentials, though in "Autumn Leaves" there was decidedly more than a +hint of the seriousness of purpose which gave authority and dignity of +style to "The Vale of Rest." + +There was at this time a change coming over his art, a change which +suggested that the stricter limits of Pre-Raphaelitism were a little too +narrow for him now that his youthful enthusiasms were being replaced by +the more tolerant ideas of mental maturity. But he was in no haste to +abandon his earlier principles; he sought rather to find how they might +be widened to cover artistic motives which scarcely came within the +scope of the creed to which the Brotherhood had originally been pledged. +So he alternated between the literalism of "The Black Brunswicker" +(1860), "The White Cockade" (1862), "My First Sermon" (1863), "My +Second Sermon" (1864), and "Asleep" and "Awake," which were shown in +1867 with that daintiest of all his earlier paintings, "The Minuet," and +the sombre suggestion of such imaginative pictures as "The Enemy Sowing +Tares," and the finely conceived "Eve of St. Agnes," of which the former +was exhibited at the Academy in 1865, and the latter in 1863. It seemed +as if he was trying to make up his mind as to the direction he was to +take for the future, testing his powers in various ways, and studying +himself to see how his wishes and his temperament could best be brought +into accord. + +But when in 1868 he broke into the new art world in which he was to +reign supreme for nearly thirty years, his abandonment of the technical +methods which he had adopted in 1849, and used ever since with +comparatively little modification, was as decisive as it was surprising. +In 1867 he was the careful, searching, and literal student of small +details, precise in brushwork, and exactly realistic in his record of +what he had microscopically examined. His "Asleep" and "Awake" were in +his most matter-of-fact vein, almost pedantically accurate in statement +of obvious facts; and even his charming "Minuet" was elaborated with a +care that left nothing for the imagination to supply. In 1868, however, +all this dwelling upon little things, all this studied minuteness of +touch and literal presentation of what was obvious, had suddenly +disappeared. All that remained to him of his Pre-Raphaelitism was the +acuteness of vision which had served him so well for twenty years in +his intimate examination of nature; everything else had gone, his minute +actuality was replaced by large and generous suggestion, his restrained +brushwork by the broadest and most emphatic handling, his realistic view +by a kind of magnificent impressionism which expressed rightly enough +the personal robustness of the man himself. + +What made this change the more dramatic was the absence of any +suggestion in his previous work that he was preparing for an executive +departure of such a marked kind. A diversion into a new class of +subjects, or an inclination towards a more serious type of sentiment, +might perhaps have been looked for from the painter of "The Vale of +Rest," "The Enemy Sowing Tares," and "The Eve of St. Agnes," but even +in the larger manner of these pictures, there was little to imply that +he desired to adopt a new mode of painting. But if the "Souvenir of +Velazquez," "Stella," "The Pilgrims to St. Paul's," and "The Sisters," +which he contributed to the 1868 Academy, are compared with what he had +done before, the full significance of his action can be perceived. + +The "Souvenir of Velazquez," indeed, is one of the most decisive pieces +of fluent brushwork which has been produced by any modern painter of the +British school. It is entirely convincing in its directness and in its +summariness of executive suggestion, and as a masterly performance it is +by no means unworthy to stand beside the works of that master to whom it +was in some sort designed as a tribute. But it has a peculiarly English +charm which Millais grafted with happy discretion on to the technical +manner of the Spanish school, and as a study of childish grace it is +almost inimitably persuasive. The little princesses whom Velazquez +painted were too often robbed of their daintiness by the formality of +the surroundings in which it was their misfortune to be placed, but the +child in this picture by Millais has lost none of her freshness, and, +with all her finery, is still a happy, young, little thing, ready for a +romp as soon as the sitting is over. In the long series of fascinating +studies of child-life which he painted with quite exquisite sympathy, +this one claims a place of particular prominence on account of its +beauty of characterisation, and its entire absence of affectation, quite +as much as it does on account of its qualities as a consummate exercise +in craftsmanship. + +This was the canvas which he finally decided to hand over to the Academy +as his diploma work. He had been promoted to the rank of Academician in +1863, and his intention then was to be represented in the Diploma +Gallery by "The Enemy Sowing Tares," which he regarded as in every way a +sound example of his powers. But his fellow-Academicians, for some not +very intelligible reason, did not agree with him about the suitability +of this picture, and it was, therefore, refused. So he sent them the +"Souvenir of Velazquez" instead, a fortunate choice, for it brought +permanently into a quasi-public gallery what is indisputably an +achievement worthy of him at his best. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE VALE OF REST (Tate Gallery) + +None of the pictures which can be assigned to the period when Millais +was still a strict adherent to the Pre-Raphaelite creed can be said to +surpass "The Vale of Rest" in depth and purity of feeling; and certainly +none expresses better in its character and manner of treatment the +artist's conception. The same exquisite sentiment, sincere and +dignified, which distinguishes "Autumn Leaves" gives to "The Vale of +Rest" an absorbing interest; and the way in which every detail of the +composition and every subtlety in the arrangement and expression of the +subject have been used to enhance the effect which the artist intended +to produce, claims unqualified admiration.] + +Once started on his new direction as a painter he went forward with +unhesitating confidence in his ability to realise his intentions, and as +the years passed by he added picture after picture to the already large +company of his successes. His admirers, surprised as they were at first +by his startling change of manner, did not hesitate to accept what he +had to offer; indeed the splendid vigour of his work brought him an +immediate increase of popularity, and he was thenceforth recognised at +home and abroad as one of the most commanding figures in the whole array +of British art, as a leader whose authority was not to be questioned. + +In 1869 he exhibited his portrait of "Nina, Daughter of F. Lehmann, +Esq.," "The Gambler's Wife," a "Portrait of Sir John Fowler," and +"Vanessa," a companion picture to his "Stella;" and in 1870 "A Widow's +Mite," "The Boyhood of Raleigh," and "The Knight Errant," with some +other works of less importance. The portrait of Miss Lehmann is one of +the pictures upon which his reputation most securely rests, admirable in +its technical quality and its observation of character; and among the +others "The Boyhood of Raleigh," and "The Knight Errant," are worthiest +of attention because they are treated with great distinction, and have +in large measure that interest which always results from judicious +interpretation of a well-selected subject. + +"The Boyhood of Raleigh," especially, is to be considered on account of +its possession of a certain dramatic sentiment which might easily have +been made theatrical by an artist less surely endowed with a sense of +fitness. But it tells its story with charm and conviction, and there is +in the action of the figures, and in the expressions on the faces, just +the right degree of vitality needed to make clear the pictorial motive. +"The Knight Errant" is, perhaps, less significant as a piece of +invention, but it has a distinct place in the artist's list of +achievements, because it affords one of the few instances of his +treatment of the nude figure on a large scale. It proves plainly enough +that his avoidance of subjects of this class was not due to any +inability on his part to succeed as a flesh painter, for this figure is +beautiful both in colour and handling; it is more probable that the +classic formality and conventionality which public opinion in this +country requires in the representation of the nude did not appeal to a +man with his love of actuality and sincere regard for nature's facts. +Indeed, from the standpoint of the decorative figure painter--of men +like Leighton, or Albert Moore, for instance--the woman that Millais has +represented is too frankly unidealised, too modern in type, and too +realistically feminine. + +But in this disregard of convention there is a kind of summing up of his +beliefs as an artist. Though he had changed the outward aspect of his +art he was still in spirit a Pre-Raphaelite, and a Pre-Raphaelite he +remained to the end of his days. He depended more upon the keenness of +vision natural to him, and assiduously cultivated by years of close +observation, than upon what powers he may have had of abstract +imagining; and he sought to only a limited extent to set down upon his +canvas those mental images which satisfy men who look upon nature +chiefly as a basis for decorative designs. The mental image with him was +a direct reflection of fact, not an adaptation modified and formalised +in accordance with recognised rules, not a fancy more or less remotely +referable to reality; but he had certainly an ample equipment of that +taste which enables the painter to discriminate between the realities +which are too crude and obvious to be worth recording, and those which +by their inherent beauty claim a permanent place in an artist's memory. +He had, too, the judgment to see that the nude, treated as it would +have to be to satisfy his æsthetic conscience, would be too plainly +stated to be entirely acceptable. + +He found a much more appropriate field for the exercise of his +particular capacities by turning to landscape painting. Many of his +earlier figure compositions had been given backgrounds which showed how +well he could manage the complex details of masses of tangled +vegetation, or the broad and simple lines of a piece of rural scenery; +but in 1871 he attempted for the first time a landscape which was +complete in itself and not merely incidental in a picture mainly +concerned with human interest. This landscape, "Chill October," was at +the Academy with his "Yes or No?" "Victory, O Lord," "A Somnambulist," +and the "Portrait of George Grote," and it was welcomed by a host of +admirers as a new revelation of his versatility. It has certainly +qualities which justify the estimation in which it was and is still +held; and though it lacks that imaginative insight into poetic +subtleties which accounts for so much in the work of a master like +Turner, it must always claim the respect of art lovers as a large, +dignified, and sincere study of nature in one of her sadder moods. It is +the reserve of the picture, its reticent realism, that chiefly makes it +memorable, for it is neither imposing in subject nor striking in effect; +but in its broad simplicity there is something rarely fascinating. + +Other nature studies of the same character followed at brief intervals +during the next few years; they added to the interest of the artist's +practice, but they can scarcely be said to have equalled in importance +the portraits and figure subjects which he completed at this stage of +his career. Millais was, of course, far too great a master to have +failed in any branch of artistic practice to which he seriously devoted +himself, but the very capacities which made him so successful as a +painter of the human subject prevented him from looking at open-air +nature with the necessary degree of abstraction. The physical character +of a piece of scenery, its details and individual peculiarities, he +could record with absolute certainty, though the elusive subtleties of +atmosphere, and the charming accidents of illumination, which mean so +much in the poetic rendering of landscape, he dwelt upon hardly at +all. In many of his landscapes the breadth and dignity, the accurate +relation of part to part, the fascinating simplicity of manner, which +are among the greater merits of "Chill October," can be praised without +reservation or hesitation; but the touch of fantasy, of actual +unreality, by which the inspired landscape painter seems to suggest more +truly the real spirit of nature, he hardly ever attempted; and never, it +may fairly be said, with complete success. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--OPHELIA (Tate Gallery) + +Realism more searching and more significant than that which Millais +sought for and attained in this small canvas would hardly come within +the bounds of possibility. But the picture is much more than a simple +study of facts; it has an exquisite charm of poetic feeling, and it is +conceived with a full measure of the tenderness needed in a +representation of the most pathetic of all Shakespeare's heroines. Such +a work has a place, definite and indisputable, among the classics of +art, and counts as one of the chief masterpieces of the British School.] + +The years over which his activity as an exponent of pure landscape +extended are, however, memorable because they saw the production of some +of the most triumphant achievements of his maturer life. With his two +landscapes, "Flowing to the Sea," and "Flowing to the River," he +exhibited in 1872 his "Hearts are Trumps," a portrait group which has +become a modern classic; and in 1873 another wonderful portrait, the +three-quarter length of "Mrs. Bischoffsheim." But it was in 1874 that he +showed what is in many ways the greatest of all his paintings, "The +North-West Passage," a work which, if he had done nothing else of +moment, would suffice to place him securely among the master painters of +the world. The head of the old man, who is the central figure in the +picture, is entirely magnificent, and there is much besides in this +canvas which would have been beyond the reach of any one but an artist +of almost abnormal power. This was followed in 1875 by his portrait of +"Miss Eveleen Tennant," and in 1877 by the "Yeoman of the Guard," which +runs "The North-West Passage" close in the race for supremacy. + +At this time, indeed, his productiveness was extraordinary; subject +pictures, portraits, and landscapes appeared in rapid succession, and in +all of them he kept to a level of masterly practice which other men +reach only occasionally and at rare intervals. Between 1873 and 1879 he +painted eight landscapes, all important in scale and interesting in +treatment, but after 1879 he produced no more for nearly ten years, when +he began a fresh series. He was apparently too busy with portraits and +figure subjects to give much time to out-of-door work, and to satisfy +the demands made upon him by art collectors and sitters he must have had +to work his hardest. Yet popularity did not make him careless, and his +hard work diminished neither his freshness of outlook nor his freedom of +expression. Conscientiousness as a craftsman was always one of his +virtues, and the knowledge that he had a host of admirers ready to +accept almost anything he would give them had certainly not the effect +of inducing him to lower his standard. + +In the long list of his paintings, which belong to the period beginning +in 1879 and ending in 1888, several stand out with special +prominence--for example, his portraits of "Mrs. Jopling," and "The Right +Hon. W. E. Gladstone," "Cherry Ripe," and "The Princess Elizabeth," all +in 1879, "The Right Hon. John Bright" in 1880, "Cardinal Newman," +"Alfred, Lord Tennyson," "Sir Henry Thompson," "Cinderella," and +"Caller Herrin'," in 1881, "J. C. Hook, R.A.," and "The Captive," in +1882, "The Marquess of Salisbury" in 1883, "The Ruling Passion," and +another portrait of Gladstone, in 1885, "Bubbles" in 1886, and "The +Marquess of Hartington" in 1887. Some of these were shown at the +Academy, but he was producing far more year by year than could be +exhibited there, so he sent many important works to the Grosvenor +Gallery, and most of his subject pictures to the galleries of the +dealers by whom they were commissioned. + +After 1888 there was some relaxation in his effort; in that year he had +at the Academy only one picture, a landscape, "Murthly Moss," and only +one portrait in each of the years 1889 and 1890, though he showed +several works in other galleries. In 1892 his landscapes "Halcyon +Weather," and "Blow, Blow, thou Winter Wind," were at the Academy, but +after that year he worked no more out-of-doors. Of the canvases painted +during the last three or four years of his life, the most memorable are +his portrait of "John Hare" (1893), "Speak! Speak!" (1895), and "A +Forerunner" (1896), all of which were at the Academy, and "Time the +Reaper" which was at the New Gallery in 1895. "Speak! Speak!" was +purchased by the Chantrey Fund trustees, and is now in the National +Gallery of British Art with the other admirably chosen examples of his +art which were given to the nation by Sir Henry Tate. + +The crowning honour of his life came to him in February 1896, when he +was elected President of the Royal Academy in succession to Lord +Leighton--an honour which was particularly appropriate not only because +of his eminence as an artist, but also because he had been intimately +connected for nearly sixty years with the institution over which he was +then called to preside. To this connection he referred in his speech at +the Academy banquet in 1895, at which he took the chair in the place of +Leighton whose illness prevented him from occupying his accustomed +position. The words which Millais used on this occasion expressed +generously and affectionately his sense of obligation to the Academy by +which he had been trained in his boyhood, and from which he had received +encouragement and support at the most critical period of his career, and +declared with characteristic frankness that he owed to it a debt of +gratitude which he never could repay. + +To those, however, who know how loyal he was to the institution that he +loved so well it would seem that the debt was, indeed, fully paid. Few +men have done more to uphold the repute of the Academy, few have by the +brilliancy of their powers and their charm of personality done it more +credit. That Leighton was the ideal President can be readily admitted, +but Millais, as his successor, would have carried on a great tradition +with dignity and sympathy and with no diminution of his predecessor's +generous tolerance and earnest sense of artistic responsibility. He +would have kept the Academy on broad lines, and by his impatience of +empty formalities he would have prevented it from losing touch with +the movements in modern art. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE (Tate Gallery) + +Even if the "North-West Passage" were not the masterly piece of painting +that it is, it would still be a picture of importance because it appeals +so vividly to the national spirit of adventure. The old Arctic explorer, +no longer able to satisfy his still strenuous inclinations, listens to +the record of his past activities which is being read to him by his +daughter, and yearns once more to battle with the hardships which must +be faced by the traveller in the frozen north. The old man's head, one +of the finest technical achievements in modern art, was painted from +Trelawny, the friend of Byron, and Shelley.] + +But, unfortunately, he was destined to hold his honourable office for +but a brief time. Even before Leighton's death he had been suffering +from a throat trouble which not long after was pronounced to be cancer; +and in the months that followed immediately on his election the disease +made rapid progress. Not long after the opening of the 1896 Academy +Exhibition his condition became so serious that an immediately fatal +result was expected; but by an operation he obtained some temporary +relief and his life was prolonged for a few weeks. This, however, was +only a brief respite; he died on August 13, and was buried a week later +in St. Paul's Cathedral, where little more than six months before he +had followed his old friend's body to the grave. + +To speak of his death as premature would be scarcely a misapplication of +the word. Although Millais had completed his sixty-seventh year he was +still in art a young man. His vigour had not waned, and there was no +perceptible diminution of his artistic vitality even in those last works +which he painted under the shadow of nearly impending death. To a man of +his splendid physique and buoyant temperament age would have come +slowly, and the inevitable degeneration of his powers would have not +begun for many more years. The possibility of great achievement remained +to him, and it would be true to say that his death robbed us of much +which would have added greatly to the sum total of British art. Yet we +may be grateful to fate for allowing him to develop the promise of his +youth in the splendour of his maturer years; it is so often the lot of +the precocious genius to die young with his mission but half fulfilled. +If death had come to Millais as it did to Bonington or Fred Walker, our +loss would have been sad indeed. + +In discussing Millais as an artist the part which his personality played +in making him what he was must by no means be overlooked. Something of +the vitality and the virility of his art was due to the way in which he +kept touch with the life about him, and interested himself in people and +things. He was no recluse who fed in secret upon his own ideas, or +narrowed his outlook by hedging himself round with prejudices and +preferences for one special class of artistic material. Instead, he went +out into the world and acquired his impressions of humanity in all +directions and at first hand, finding much pleasure in association with +his fellow-men. To his own human nature he gave free rein; he was a keen +sportsman, a lover of children--of whose ways he had, as he proved in +scores of pictures, a perfect understanding--and a man who was always +happy in congenial society, and always welcome. He lived his life, in +fact, largely, genially, and wholesomely, and he was as much unspoiled +by the prosperity which came to him in his maturer years as he was +unshaken by the opposition which he had to face in that brief period of +his youth when, as he used to say himself, he was "so dreadfully +bullied." + +That this brief taste of unpopularity did him good rather than harm can +well be imagined, for without making him bitter it tested with some +severity his tenacity and his power to fight vigorously for what he +believed to be right--and such a test has always its value as a means of +developing the finer qualities of a strong man, or as a warning to the +weak one of the need for self-examination. Millais did not require any +incentive to self-examination, because he knew well enough what he +intended to do when he deliberately set up his own conviction against +that of the men who practically ruled British art, and he did not enter +upon the fight with any idea of backing out if he found it was likely +to go against him. But after the kind of triumphal progress which he +made through the Academy schools, the discovery that the wider public +was not disposed to accept him as infallible was possibly necessary to +prove to him that successes as a student did not give him, as a matter +of course, an assured place among the chiefs of his profession. He was +taught roughly, and in a way that roused both his fighting spirit and +his pride, that this position was to be won only by sustained and +strenuous effort; and this lesson he never forgot. Its effects persisted +long after he had become a popular favourite, and they helped, it can be +fairly believed, to strengthen his character and to keep him from that +easy contentment with his own works which is the first step towards +degeneration. He did not degenerate after he had secured what he had +been striving for; although he had silenced his critics, and had won +them over to his side, he continued to sit in severest judgment upon +himself, and to the last he exacted from his own capacities the utmost +they could give him. + + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Millais, by Alfred Lys Baldry + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41648 *** |