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He was born in Southampton of a prominent Jersey-based family. His prodigious artistic talent won him a place at the Royal Academy schools at the unprecedented age of eleven. While there, he met William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with whom he would form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Millais’s Christ in the House of his Parents (1850) was highly controversial because of its realistic portrayal of a working class Holy Family labouring in a messy carpentry workshop. Also later works were controversial, though less so. Millais achieved popular success with A Huguenot (1852), which depicts a young couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in many later works.
All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world. This style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin. Millais' friendship with Ruskin introduced him to Ruskin's wife Effie. Soon after they met she modeled for his painting An Order of Release. As Milais painted Effie they fell in love. Despite having been married to Ruskin for several years, Effie was still a virgin and the culture had kept her sheltered enough to be a little vague about what sex was. Her parents realized something was wrong and she filed for an annulment. After her marriage to Ruskin was annulled, Effie and John Millais married.
After his marriage to Effie, Millais began to paint in a broader style, which Ruskin attacked. Millais realized that he could sell a less time-consuming painting for the same price as a more time-consuming painting. He too felt that the quality of his work had dropped off. Marriage had given him a family to support (Effie and John had 8 children together). The annulment barred Effie from many social functions. She was not allowed in the prescence of the queen, so if the queen was allowed to come to a party then Effie was not. Prior to the annulment, she had been socially very active and this really bothered her. Millais wanted to please her and felt that he needed to maintain her at a high level. (Daly 1989) So economics degraded his work.
Works such as The Eve of St. Agnes and The Somnambulist show the influence of Whistler. Others demonstrate Millais's reverence for Velázquez and RembrandtRembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn ( July 15, 1606 October 4, 1669) is generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art history, and the most important United Provinces ( Netherlands) painter of the seventeenth century. Rembrandt was also a p. Millais achieved great popularity with his paintings of children, notably Bubbles and Cherry Ripe. Larger works, such as The Boyhood of Raleigh and The North-West Passage, often portrayed episodes in Britain's imperial history.
Millais was also very successful as a book illustrator, notably for the works of Anthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope ( April 24, 1815 December 6, 1882) became one of the most successful and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. His popularity continues into the present day (some famous fans being Alec Guinness, who never traveled without a T.
See also English school of paintingThe English school of painting is an expression for English (or British) painters who produced characteristically English paintings. Generally, the term "school" is used to designate a special collection of traditions and processes, a particular method, a