The pre-raphaelite children of Sir John Everett Millais

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25 pages word

anglais

littérature

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publié le 09/06/2008

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In 1855, john everett millais begins one of his most intriguing paintings – the painting that will mark his career as one of the founders of the PRB. His models are a group of young girls, all of them under 13, allegedly chosen for their youth and beauty. Between 1856 and 1868, john everett millais and his wife Effie had eight children and all of them sat for the paintings of their father. But children and childhood are far from being used as mere accessory models within a larder whole. On the contrary, they are central to millais’s work. Many of millais’s paintings are technically organised around one or several children, exploring their activities and environment. In this sense, the figure of the child seems to acquire a primordial importance and becomes a source of inspiration. The figures of children, as we shall see further, allow the development of a large number of themes. millais explores the world of the child from a variety of points of view which have social and philosophical implications. Many are overtly sentimental, while others are less so. However, almost all of them have the character, atmosphere and symbolic of the PRB.
Broadly speaking, john everett millais’s paintings of children fall into two main groups. On the one hand, he has produced numerous portraits of children with adults. On the other, he painted a variety of portraits of children on their own. These two groups can be repartitioned throughout the years, the beginning of millais’s career (up to 1862) being mostly devoted to groups of children and children, accompanied by adults. From 1862 onwards, millais produces a greater number of portraits of children alone with a few exceptions. Thematically, the artist’s treatment of the child falls into several categories. The family unit, providing education and protection, is one of the easiest to pinpoint. children in distress and children as victims of the rude adult reality are another two recurring categories. The innate purity of the child is the founding principle of these works. The contact of the child with the adult world is also a source of distress and disappointment, resulting in millais’s most poignant and pathetic works. This latter category is easily identifiable during the period 1850 – 1862.

Sommaire

Millais strove to blend the aesthetics of the Pre-Raphaelian Brotherhood with subject-matter that he felt was closer to the everyday and to the popular concerns of the times
The cleavage between the representation of children in distress and children within the family unit
Portrayal of girls throughout Millais' career

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