Probably James Miller; Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Probably James Miller; Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt

by Rupert Potter
albumen print, October 1881
6 1/2 in. x 8 3/8 in. (164 mm x 213 mm) overall
Given by Jack Edward Ladeveze, 1993
Photographs Collection
NPG x131238

Sittersback to top

  • Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt (1829-1896), Painter and President of the Royal Academy; ex-officio Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Sitter in 76 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 43 portraits.
  • James Miller (active 1880s-1890s), Fisherman. Sitter associated with 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • Rupert Potter (1832-1914), Barrister and photographer; father of Beatrix Potter. Artist or producer associated with 29 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Seated on the right, dressed in tweeds and a deer-stalker hat, Millais epitomises the status he achieved as a wealthy Victorian gentleman, enjoying sporting holidays to hunt and fish. Taken in Dalguise, Perthshire, this photograph was reproduced in the Illustrated London News (22 August 1896).

Placesback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1881back to top

Current affairs

Benjamin Disraeli dies of bronchitis. He refuses a state funeral and is buried next to his wife, Mary Ann Viscountess Beaconsfield.
Gladstone's Irish Land Act is passed in a bid to stop violence carried out by the republican Land League, conducted in protest at the 1870 Land Act.
Henry Mayers Hyndman forms the Marxist Democratic Federation.

Art and science

The Natural History Museum is opened on Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The museum, a landmark gothic design by the architect Alfred Waterhouse, was built to house specimens from the natural sciences, previously in the British Museum's collection. Today, the museum comprises of over 70 million items, and is a world-renowned research centre.

International

Alexander II is assassinated in a bomb attack by members of a left-wing revolutionary movement. He was succeeded by his son, Tsar Alexander III.
US President James Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau.
The first Anglo-Boer war ends. The war is started by a Boer uprising, as the British had annexed the Transvaal in 1877. Following Britain's defeat at the Battle of Majuba Hill, a truce is signed giving the Boers self-government and later independence.

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Harvey Brewis

25 July 2019, 18:21

In his book "The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais - Volume II" (1899), Millais' son, John Guille Millais makes many references to Millais repeatedly utilising the services of a local fisherman called James Miller while fishing on the River Tay. It could very well be that the unknown man is James Miller.