Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt (1829-1896), Painter and President of the Royal Academy; ex-officio Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery

Painter; born 8 June 1829, in Southampton. Spent early childhood in Jersey, from where family moved to London in 1838; entered Royal Academy Schools aged eleven (youngest student ever admitted) 1840; friendship with William Holman Hunt from 1844; early meetings of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Millais’s studio in Gower Street 1848; Ophelia (exh. RA 1852); visit to Scotland with the Ruskins 1853; married Effie Ruskin 3 July 1855, spending early married life in Scotland, where Millais developed passion for fieldsports; also active as an illustrator (for Once a Week, Cornhill Magazine, etc.) late 1850s–early 1860s; elected ARA 1853, RA 1863; family lived at 7 Cromwell Place, Kensington 1861–77; painting style moved towards Aestheticism from 1860s, with more portraiture (see examples at NPG) and child subjects (e.g. My First Sermon, exh. RA 1863, and Bubbles, 1886); commissioned monumental house in Palace Gate from Philip Hardwick 1873–6; exhibited mainly at RA but also Grosvenor Gallery from 1877; first retrospective Fine Art Society 1881; created baronet July 1885; elected PRA in succession to Frederic Leighton 20 February 1896; terminally ill, the last three months spent in silence and seclusion, he died at 2 Palace Gate on 13 August 1896, aged sixty-seven and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral next to J.M.W. Turner.

Valentine Prinsep described his appearance in the 1850s:

I first made the acquaintance of John Millais at my father’s house about the year 1854. Tall, thin, and active, his eager, handsome face, his clustering curls of dark hair, and his keen bright eye – his whole presence – betokened a boyish energy which was quite remarkable. […] In the fifties no one could be less like the then received type of an artist than Millais. His clean-shaven lip and chin, and his whiskers worn in the fashion of the day (‘mutton-chop’), contrasted with the beards worn by most artists, while in place of the flowing necktie, open collar, and velveteen coat of the many painters, Millais always appeared in a long frock-coat and high-standing ‘stick-up’. In fact he looked like a successful and fashionable business man. [1]

The art-critic Walter Armstrong on Millais in 1885:

As we enter the studio Sir John Millais turns from an easel which faces us, and as he stands for a moment in the light streaming down from the great window, and peers into the darkness about the door, we receive an impression which we may try to record, for it is characteristic of the man. He has a great palette on his left thumb, and in his left hand a sheaf of brushes; in his right hand he holds the short briar pipe which has just left his lips. His dress is a white linen jacket, for it is a hot morning in July, and his whole attitude denotes that instant of inquiry, which, in an eager, impulsive nature, precedes either a warm welcome or a no less hearty repulse. [2]

Carol Blackett-Ord

Footnotesback to top

1) Millais 1899, vol.2, p.376–7.
2) Armstrong 1885, p.30.

Referencesback to top

Adams 1936
Adams, C.K., A Catalogue of the Pictures in the Garrick Club, London, 1936.

Ahlund 2009
Ahlund, M., ed., The Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2009.

Armstrong 1885
Armstrong, W., ‘Sir John Everett Millais’, The Art Annual for 1885 (Art Journal Christmas number), 1885.

Ashton 1997
Ashton, G., Pictures in the Garrick Club, ed. K.A. Burnim and A. Wilton, London, 1997.

Baker & Richardson 1997
Baker, M., and B. Richardson, A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1997.

Benezit 2006
Benezit, E., Dictionary of Artists (based on 4th ed. of French version), 14 vols, Paris, 2006.

Bilbey & Trusted 2002
Bilbey, D., and M. Trusted, British Sculpture 1470–2000: A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2002.

Bills & Knight 2006
Bills, M., and V. Knight, eds, William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age, London, 2006.

Bradbury 2012
Bradbury, S., Joanna, George and Henry: A Pre-Raphaelite Tale of Art, Love and Friendship, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2012.

Bronkhurst 2006
Bronkhurst, J.E., William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols, New Haven and London, 2006.

Bryant 2004a
Bryant, B., G.F. Watts Portraits: Fame and Beauty in Victorian Society, exh.cat., NPG, London, 2004.

Cassell’s [1874–7]
The National Portrait Gallery, 4 vols, London, [1874–7].

Collingwood 1898
Collingwood, S.D., The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, London, 1898.

Cruise 2011
Cruise, C., Pre-Raphaelite Drawing, London, 2011 (to accompany exh. The Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite Designs, Studies and Watercolours, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2011).

Davids 2000
Davids, R., The Artist as Portrait, exh. cat., Fine Art Society, London, 2000.

Dearden 1999
Dearden, J.S., John Ruskin: A Life in Pictures, Sheffield, 1999.

Denker 1995
Denker, E., In Pursuit of the Butterfly: Portraits of James McNeill Whistler, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 1995.

Donovan & Bushnell 1996
Donovan, C., and J. Bushnell, John Everett Millais 1829–1896: A Centenary Exhibition, exh. cat., Southampton Institute, 1996.

Du Maurier 1951
Du Maurier, D., ed., The Young George Du Maurier: A Selection of his Letters 1860–67, London, 1951.

Elzea 2001
Elzea, B., Frederick Sandys: A Catalogue Raisonné, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2001.

Fredeman 1960
Fredeman, W.E., ‘The Pre-Raphaelites in Caricature: “The Choice of Paris: An Idyll” by Florence Claxton’, Burlington Magazine, Dec. 1960, pp.523–7.

Fredeman 2002–10
Fredeman, W.E., ed., The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 9 vols, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2002–10.

Funnell & Warner 1999
Funnell, P., and M. Warner, Millais: Portraits, exh. cat., NPG, London, 1999.

Furniss 1890b
Furniss, H., Royal Academy Antics, London, 1890.

Furniss 1923
Furniss, H., Some Victorian Women: Good, Bad and Indifferent, London, 1923.

Gaunt 1972
Gaunt, W., The Restless Century: Painting in Britain 1800–1900, London, 1972.

Gernsheim 1969
Gernsheim, H., Lewis Carroll Victorian Photographer, New York, 1969 (originally issued 1949).

Gould 2004
Gould, V.F., G.F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian, London, 2004.

Gower 1902
Gower, R.S., Old Diaries 1881–1901, London, 1902.

Gregory 2006
Gregory, B., A History of the Artists Rifles 1859–1947, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, 2006.

Hacking 2000
Hacking, J., Princes of Victorian Bohemia: Photographs by David Wilkie Wynfield, exh. cat., NPG, London, 2000.

Hankinson 1982
Hankinson, A., Man of Wars: William Howard Russell of The Times, London, 1982.

Hart-Davis 1972
Hart-Davis, R., A Catalogue of the Caricatures of Max Beerbohm, London, 1972.

Herkomer 1910–11
Herkomer, H. von, The Herkomers, 2 vols, London, 1910–11.

Hewison, Warrell & Wildman 2000
Hewison, R., I. Warrell and S. Wildman, Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., London, 2000.

Houfe 1995
Houfe, S., The Work of Charles Samuel Keene, Aldershot, Hants, 1995.

Houfe 1996
Houfe, S., The Dictionary of 19th-Century British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1996 (rev. ed. of Houfe 1978).

Hudson 1947
Hudson, D., Charles Keene, London, 1947.

Hudson 1969
Hudson, D., ‘Billiards at the Garrick Club’, Connoisseur, December 1969, p.274.

Hughes & Edmonds 1876
English Celebrities of the Nineteenth Century, Part 1, Hughes & Edmonds, London, 1876.

Hulme, Buchanan & Powell 2000
Hulme, G., B. Buchanan and K. Powell, The National Portrait Gallery: An Architectural History, London, 2000.

Hunt 1905
Hunt, W.H., Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 2 vols, London, 1905

Hunt 1913
Hunt, W.H., Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 2nd ed., 2 vols, London, 1913.

Hutchinson 1920
Hutchinson, H.G., Portraits of the Eighties, London, 1920.

Jones et al. 1996
Jones, S., and others, Frederic Leighton 1830–1896, exh. cat., Royal Academy, London, 1996.

Layard 1892
Layard, G.S., The Life and Letters of Charles Keene of ‘Punch’, London, 1892.

Lugt 1953
Lugt, F., Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques, deuxième période, The Hague, 1953.

Lutyens 1967
Lutyens, M., ed., Millais and the Ruskins, London, 1967.

McMaster 2008
McMaster, J., ‘That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy’, British Art Journal, Autumn 2008, pp.62–76.

McMaster 2009
McMaster, J., That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy, Edmonton, Canada, 2009.

Mancoff 2001
Mancoff, D.N., ed., John Everett Millais: Beyond the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, New Haven and London, 2001.

Marillier 1896
Marillier, H.C., ed., Men and Women of the Century: Being a Collection of Portraits and Sketches by Mr Rudolph Lehmann, London, 1896.

Matthews & Mellini 1982
Matthews, R., and P. Mellini, In ‘Vanity Fair’, London, 1982.

May [1904]
May, P., The Phil May Folio of Caricature Drawings and Sketches, London, [1904].

Millais 1979
Millais, G., Sir John Everett Millais, London, 1979.

Millais 1899
Millais, J.G., The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, 2 vols, London, 1899.

Minto 1892
Minto, W., ed., Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William Bell Scott, 2 vols, London, 1892.

Noakes 1978
Noakes, A., William Frith: Extraordinary Victorian Painter, London, 1978.

O’Donoghue 1908–22
O’Donoghue, F., Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 5 vols, London, 1908–22 (and vol.6, H.M. Hake, Supplement and indexes, 1925).

Ormond 1969
Ormond, L., George Du Maurier, London, 1969.

Ormond 2010
Ormond, L., Linley Sambourne: Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist, London, 2010.

Ormond & Ormond 1975
Ormond, L., and R. Ormond, Lord Leighton, London, 1975.

Ormond 1967
Ormond, R., ‘Portraits to Australia’, Apollo, vol.85, 1967, pp.25–7.

Ormond 1973
Ormond, R., National Portrait Gallery: Early Victorian Portraits, London, 1973.

Parris 1984
Parris, L., ed., The Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1984.

Pennell & Pennell 1908
Pennell, E.R., and J. Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London, 1908.

Penny 1992
Penny, N., Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols, Oxford, 1992.

Price 1957
Price, R.G., A History of Punch, London, 1957.

Read & Barnes 1991
Read, B., and J. Barnes, eds, Pre-Raphaelite Sculpture: Nature and Imagination in British Sculpture 1848–1914, London, 1991.

Reynolds 1912
Reynolds, A.M., The Life and Work of Frank Holl, London, 1912.

Roberts & Wildman 1997
Roberts, L., and S. Wildman, eds, Arthur Hughes, His Life and Works: A Catalogue Raisonné, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997.

Robinson [1892]
Robinson, R.W., Members and Associates of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1891. Photographed in their Studios by Ralph W. Robinson of Redhill, n.p., [1892].

Rogers 1993
Rogers, M., Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, London, touring exh. cat., NPG, London, 1993.

Rosenfeld & Smith 2007
Rosenfeld, J., and A. Smith, Millais, exh. cat., Tate, London, 2007.

Sickert 2000
Sickert, W., The Complete Writings, London, 2000.

Snow 1975
Snow, C.P., Trollope, London, 1975.

Spielmann 1898
Spielmann, M.H., Millais and His Works, Edinburgh and London, 1898.

Spielmann 1901
Spielmann, M.H., British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-Day, London, 1901.

Stephens 1884
Stephens, F.G., ed., Artists at Home. Photographed by J.P. Mayall and reproduced in facsimile…, 6 parts, London, 1884.

Stetz 2007
Stetz, M.D., Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Newark, DE, 2007.

Stirling 1926
Stirling, A.M.W., ed., The Richmond Papers, London, 1926.

Stocker 1986
Stocker, M., ‘Royalist and Realist: The Life and Work of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm’, unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Hull, 1986.

Stocker 1988
Stocker, M., Royalist and Realist: The Life and Work of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, New York and London, 1988.

Surtees 1971
Surtees, V., The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882): A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols, Oxford, 1971.

Swanson 1977
Swanson, V.G., Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema: Painter of the Victorian Vision of the Ancient World, London, 1977.

Tait & Walker 2000
Tait, H., and R. Walker, The Athenaeum Collection, London, 2000.

Taylor 1986
Taylor, G., ed., Byam Shaw: A Selection of Paintings and Book Illustrations, exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1986.

Taylor 1860
Taylor, T., ed., Autobiographical Recollections of Charles Robert Leslie, London, 1860.

Thirlwell 2003
Thirlwell, A., William and Lucy: The Other Rossettis, New Haven and London, 2003.

Thomas 1901
Thomas, R., Serjeant Thomas and Sir J.E. Millais, London, 1901.

Waddy 1873
Waddy, F., Cartoon Portraits of Men of the Day, London, 1873.

Waggoner et al. 2010
Waggoner, D., and others, eds, The Pre-Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting, 1848–1875, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2010.

Ward 1915
Ward, L., Forty Years of ‘Spy’, London, 1915.

Warner 1979a
Warner, M., The Drawings of John Everett Millais, exh. cat., Arts Council, London, 1979.

Warner 1979b
Warner, M., Sir John Everett Millais Commemorative Exhibition, exh. cat., Jersey, 1979.

Warner 2004
Warner, M., ‘Millais, Sir John Everett (1829–1896), first baronet’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004; online ed., May 2006.

Watts 1975
G.F. Watts: The Hall of Fame: Portraits of His Famous Contemporaries, exh. cat., NPG, London, 1975.

Whiteley 1948
Whiteley, D. Pepys, George Du Maurier, London, 1948.

Wood 1976
Wood, C., Victorian Panorama: Paintings of Victorian Life, London, 1976.

Wood 2006
Wood, C., William Powell Frith: A Painter & His World, Stroud, Glos., 2006.

Carol Blackett-Ord