John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais was an English artist and illustrator who lived from 1829 to 1896. In 1848, he helped to found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood art movement. Other founders of this movement include such art masters as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt.
As a child, Millais was viewed as an art prodigy. This was partly from his talent, but also partly from his mother’s strong desire to promote and nurture his artistic talents from a very young age. At 11 years old, Millais became the youngest student to enter the prestigious Royal Academy of Art in London, where he became known as “The Child”. At the academy, he met many talented artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. With shared ideals, they banded together in 1848 to form the idealistic Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood shared a common aspiration to return to the rich detail, colors, and composition of art during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, prior to the classical poses and compositional style that started with Raphael. They also wanted “truth to nature” and aimed to depict nature in detail to its truest form.
In 1850, Millais formed a friendship with artist, Arthur Hughes. Hughes soon switched his style to that of the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1851, Millais met art critic John Ruskin, when Ruskin defended the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Ruskin and Millais became friends but got into a scandalous affair. Ruskin’s wife modeled for Millais’s 1853 painting, “The Order of Release” and the two fell in love. Ruskin’s wife, Effie, left him for Millais. Regardless, Ruskin continued to support Millais and the Pre-Raphaelite art style in his writings for the rest of his career.
After Millais’s marriage to Effie in 1855, his art style began to change. During the next twelve years, the couple produced eight children, and Millas had to provide for his growing family. He needed to produce paintings quicker, and as such, his brushstrokes broadened, and his pieces were not as detailed. Millais has said that it wasn’t economically possible to spend all day painting an area “no larger than a five-shilling piece”. Millais soon became one of the greatest portrait artists of the Victorian era, and one of the wealthiest people in England. He was the first artist to be given the hereditary title of Baronet by the British Crown.
In 1896, John Everett Millais was elected president of the Royal Academy of Art. Unfortunately, his tenure was short-lived. He died later that year from throat cancer at the age of 67.
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