THE GIFT OF |a 1uiuauiit0 i i 4...........~... I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~I 'I' ~~5',..'................ ",.-.:::::...... _ _ _ 1 -.. I.I (_ "5,....................... -.. - I - S I~r fancy, amongs thos in my- possession appeaende ilsrt tr D Rst in the fiftnubrhdthe pueriodicalGrm hsurie so long. Thelai followings ishdd a bref op ou tlinlae of i eithe tae: knight isinlve wiaedthe the daughter, oft aot king wh ie nd a emoae castle Hispea afecio isan reuredbu the kthiging swear to kil hm f e a ttemptsf toe saee, his lay-ove. The lovers sigh for each other, but there is no opportunity for meeting till the winter comes and the moat is frozen over. * It was not of the " Brethren " only, others who were in sympathy with them also took part in the publication. 68 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I848-1852 The knight then passes over the ice, and, scaling the walls of the castle, carries off the lady. As they rush across the ice sounds of alarm are heard within, and at that moment the surface gives way, and they are seen no more in life. The old king is inconsolable. Years pass by, and the moat is drained; the skeletons of the two lovers are then found locked in each other's arms, the water-worn muslin of the lady's dress still clinging to the points of the kniglt's armour. It seems from a letter of Rossetti's to W. B. Scott that, after the Cyclographic Club and The Germ had come to an end, Millais tried to found amongst the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers and their allies a sketching club, which would also include two ladies, namely, the beautiful Marchioness of Waterford and the Honourable Mrs. Boyle (then known as E. V. B.), both these ladies being promising artists, above the rank of amateurs; but this scheme also fell through. CHAPTER III " Lorenzo and Isabella "- A prime joke -" Christ in the home of His parents " - The onslaught of the critics - Charles Dickens unfavourable - Millais at work -The newspapers send him to Australia - The P. R. B. draw each other for Woolner - The bricklayers' opinion -- The elusive nugget -" Ferdinand lured by Ariel" -The ultra-cautious dealer-Millais at the theatre painting portraits -His sale of " Ferdinand " - Mr. Stephens tells of his sittings for "Ferdinand's" head- Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Combe —Their kindness to Millais- Millais' letters to the Combes - His life in London - The Collins family - Letters about " The Woodman's Daughter " and " The Flood "" Mariana " - An obliging mouse - " The Woodman's Daughter " - William Millais on the picture -The artist's devotion to truth - Ruskin on the PreRaphaelites-He champions their cause - His unreliability as a critic. M ILLAIS' first big work in which he threw down the gauntlet to the critics, marking his picture with the hated P. R. B. signature, was " Lorenzo and Isabella," the subject being taken from Keats' paraphrase of Boccaccio's story: - " Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel! Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love's eye. They could not in the self-same mansion dwell Without some stir of heart, some malady; They could not sit at meals but feel how well It soothed each to be the other by; They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep, But to each other dream and nightly weep." All the figures were painted from the artist's own friends and relations. Mrs. Hodgkinson (wife of Millais' halfbrother) sat for Isabella; Millais' father, shorn of his beard, sat for the man wiping his lips with a napkin; William Rossetti sat for Lorenzo; Mr. Hugh Fen is paring an apple; and D. G. Rossetti is seen at the end of the table drinking from a long glass; whilst the brother, spitefully kicking the dog, in the foreground, was Mr. Wright, an architect; and a student named Harris. Mr. F. G. Stephens is supposed to have sat for the head which appears between the watching brother and his wineglass; and a student 69 70 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1848 named Plass stood for the serving-man. Poor Walter Deverell is also there. Millais planned this work as late as November, 1848, and carried it on, as Mr. Holman Hunt says, "at a pace beyond all calculation," producing in the end "the most wonderful picture in the world for a lad of twenty." DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI Study for " Lorenzo and Isabella." 1848 And now let us see what the critics had to say about it. Fraser's Magazine of July, 1849, was, to say the least, encouraging; witness the following critique: - " Among the multitude of minor pictures at the Academy, nearly all of which, we are bound to say, exhibit more than an average degree of excellence, one stands out distinguished from the rest. It is the work of a young artist named Millais, whose "LORENZO AND ISABELLA." t848 By permission of the Corporaton of Liverpool 1849] "LORENZO AND ISABELLA " 73 name we do not remember to have seen before. The subject is taken from Keats' quaint, charming and pathetic poem, 'Isabella.' The whole family are seated at a table; Lorenzo is speaking with timid adoration to Isabella, the consciousness of dependency and of the contempt in which he is held by her brothers being stamped on his countenance. The figures of the brothers, especially of him who sits nearest to the front, are drawn and coloured with remarkable power. The attitude of this brother, as his leg is stretched out to kick Isabella's dog, is vigorous and original. The colour of the picture is very delicate and beautiful. Like Mr. [Ford Madox] Brown, however, this young artist, although exhibiting unquestionable genius, is evidently enslaved by preference for a false style. There is too much mannerism in the picture; but the talent of the artist will, we doubt not, break through it." And Mr. Stephens was still more complimentary. In the Grosvenor Gallery catalogue of the year i886 he wrote:"Every detail, tint, surface texture, and substance, all the flesh, all the minutiae of the accessories were offered to the exquisitely keen sight, indefatigable fingers, unchangeable skill, and indomitable patience of one of the most energetic of painters. Such tenacity and technical powers were never, since the German followers of Diirer adopted Italian principles of working, exercised on a single picture. Van Eyck did not study details of 'the life' more unflinchingly than Millais in this case. The flesh of some of the heads, except so far as the face of 'Ferdinand' and some parts of Holman Hunt's contemporaneous 'Rienzi,' were concerned, remained beyond comparison in finish and solidity until Millais painted the hands in 'The Return of the Dove to the Ark.' " But the critics were not all of this mind; there was considerable diversity of opinion amongst them. Some were simply silent; but of those who noticed the work at all the majority spoke of it in terms of qualified approval, regarding it rather as a tentative departure from the beaten track of Art than as the fruit of long and earnest conviction. By the general public it was looked upon as a prime joke, only surpassing in absurdity Mr. Holman Hunt's " Rienzi," which was exhibited at the same time, and was equally beyond their comprehension. With a plentiful lack of wit, they greeted it with loud laughter or supercilious smiles, and in 74 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1849 some instances even the proud Press descended to insults of the most personal kind. This, however, only stiffened Millais' resolution to proceed on his own lines, and to defend against all comers the principles on which the Brotherhood was founded. The picture was bought of the artist by three combined amateur dealers, who sold it to Mr. Windus, of Tottenham. After remaining with him some ten or twelve years Gambart bought it, and again sold it to Woolner, R. A. It is now in the possession of the Corporation of Liverpool. In the following year was exhibited the picture commonly known as " Christ in the Home of His Parents," but with no other title than the following quotation from Zechariah xiii. 6: "And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends." It was painted on precisely the same principle as was that which had called forth the derision of the multitude, and as both Rossetti and Mr. Hunt exhibited at the same time important pictures of the same school, there could no longer be any doubt as to the serious meaning of the movement. Then, with one accord, their opponents fell upon Millais as the prime mover in the rebellion against established precedent. In the words of a latter-day critic, " Men who knew nothing of Art reviled Millais because he was not of the art, artistic. Dilettanti who could not draw a finger-tip scolded one of the most accomplished draughtsmen of the age because he delineated what he saw. Cognoscenti who could not paint rebuked the most brilliant gold medal student of the Royal Academy on account of his technical proceedings. Critics of the most rigid views belaboured and shrieked at an original genius, whose struggles and whose efforts they could not understand. Intolerant and tyrannical commentators condemned the youth of twenty because he dared to think for himself; and, to sum up the burden of the chorus of shame and false judgment, there was hardly a whisper of faith or hope, or even of charity-nay, not a sound of the commonest and poorest courtesy-vouchsafed to the painter of 'The Carpenter's Shop,' as, in utter scorn, this picture was originally and contumeliously called." What the Academy thought of it may be gathered from the words of the late F. B. Barwell: "I well remember Mulready, R. A., alluding to the picture some two years after its exhibition. He said that it had few admirers inside the 1849] ONSLAUGHT OF THE CRITICS 75 Royal Academy Council, and that he himself and Maclise alone supported its claims to a favourable consideration." The picture itself, devotional and symbolic in intent, is too well known to need any description. The child Christ is seen in His father's workshop with blood flowing from His hand, the result of a recent wound, while His mother waits upon Him with loving sympathy. That is the main subject. And now let us see how it was treated by the Press. Blackwood's Magazinze dealt with it in this wise: " We can hardly imagine anything more ugly, graceless, and unpleasant than Mr. Millais' picture of 'Christ in the Carpenter's Shop.' Such a collection of splay feet, puffed joints, and misshapen limbs was assuredly never before made within so small a compass. We have great difficulty in believing a report that this unpleasing and atrociously affected picture has found a purchaser at a high price. Another specimen from the same brush inspires rather laughter than disgust." That was pretty strong; but, not to be left behind in the race to accomplish the painter's ruin, a leading literary journal, whose Art critic, by the way, was a Royal Academician, delivered itself in the following terms: " Mr. Millais in his picture without a name (518), which represents a holy family in the interior of a carpenter's shop, has been most successful in the least dignified features of his presentment, and in giving to the higher forms, characters, and meanings a circumstantial art-language from which we recoil with loathing and disgust. There are many to whom his work will seem a pictorial blasphemy. Great imaginative talents have here been perverted to the use of an eccentricity both lamentable and revolting." Another critic, bent on displaying his wit at the expense of the artist, said: " Mr. Millais' picture looks as if it had passed through a mangle." And even Charles Dickens, who in later years was a firm friend of Millais and a great admirer of his works, denounced the picture in a leading article in Household Words as "mean, odious, revolting, and repulsive." But perhaps the most unreasonable notice of all was the following, which appeared in the Times: "Mr. Millais' principal picture is, to speak plainly, revolting. The attempt to associate the holy family with the meanest details of a carpenter's shop, with no conceivable omission of misery, of dirt, of even disease, all finished with the same loathsome minuteness, is disgusting; and with a surprising power of 76 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i849 imitation, this picture serves to show how far mere imitation may fall short, by dryness and conceit, of all dignity and truth." From these extracts it is easy to see what criticism was a generation ago. As Mr. Walter Armstrong says, " Not the faintest attempt is made to divine the artist's standpoint, and to look at the theme from his side. The writer does not accept the Pre-Raphaelite idea even provisionally, and as a means of testing the efficiency of the work it leads to. He merely lays down its creations upon his own procrustean bed, and condemns them en bloc because they cannot be made to fit. And this article in the Times is a fair example ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR "CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF HIS PARENTS" (Four figures only) of the general welcome the picture met wth.... Such criticism is mere scolding. When an artist of ability denies and contemns your canvas, to call him names is to confess their futility." In an interesting note on this picture Mr. Edward Benest (Millais' cousin) says, "During the three years I was working in London I was a frequent visitor to the Gower Street house.... From the intellectual point of view this picture may be said to be the outcome of the combined brains of the Millais family. Every little portion of the whole canvas was discussed, considered, and settled upon by the father, mother, and Johnnie e (the artist) before a touch was placed on the canvas, although sketches had been made. Of course, coming frequently, I used toritici too; and if I suggested I 849] MILLAIS AT WORK 77 any alteration, Johnnie used to say in his determined way, ' No, Ned; that hlias been all settled by us, and I shan't alter it.' " Everything in that house was characteristic of the great devotion of all to the young artist; and yet he was in no way spoilt. Whilst he was at work his father and mother sat beside him most of the time, the mother constantly reading to him on every imaginable subject that interested SKETCH FOR "CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF HIS PARENTS" the boy, or stopping to discuss matters with him. The boy himself, whilst working joined freely and cleverly in any conversation that was going on; and once when I asked him how he could possibly paint and talk at the same time, and throw such energy into both, he said, tapping his forehead, ' Oh, that's all right. I have painted every touch in my head, as it were, long ago, and have now only to transfer it to canvas.' The father-a perfect optimistwhen unable to help in any other way, would occupy 78 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i849 himself by pointing all Johnnie's pencils or playing whole operas on the flute. This instrument he played almost as well as any professional. "The principal point of discussion with regard to the 'Carpenter's Shop' related to the head of the Virgin Mary. At first, as his sketches show, she was represented as being kissed by the child Christ; but this idea was presently altered to the present position of the figures, and the mother is now shown embracing her Son. These two figures were constantly painted and repainted in various attitudes, and finished only a short time before the picture was exhibited. The figure, too, of St. John carrying a bowl of water was inserted at the last moment." The picture, when finished (not before), was sold for 1I50 to a dealer named Farrer, whose confidence in the young artist was amusingly displayed by pasting on the back of it all the adverse criticisms that appeared. The models for this picture were as follows: the Virgin Mary, Mrs. Henry Hodgkinson, the Christ, Noel Humphreys (son of an architect), John the Baptist, Edwin Everett, (an adopted child of the Mr. Everett who married Millais' aunt), and the apprentice H. St. Ledger. In painting it, Millais was so determined to be accurate in every detail, that he used to take the canvas down to a carpenter's shop and paint the interior direct from what he saw there. The figure of Joseph he took from the carpenter himself, saying that it was "the only way to get the development of the muscles right"; but the head was painted from Millais' father. His great difficulty was with the sheep, for there were no flocks within miles of Gower Street. At last, only a few days before the picture had to be sent in to the Royal Academy, he went to a neighbouring butcher's, where he bought two sheep's heads with the wool on, and from these he painted the flock. There is a good story about these Pre-Raphaelite days that I am tempted to introduce here in contrast with the graver portion of this chapter. Gold-digging is hardly an adventure in which I should have expected my father to engage; but the papers, of course, must be right, and in i886 one of them (an Edinburgh evening journal) announced that at a certain period in the fifties Millais was travelling in Australia in company with Woolner, the sculptor, and the present Prime Minister of England, and for some time "CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF HIS PARENTS." 1849 By permsissioiz of. Beer I1849 ] THE BRICKLAYERS' OPINION 8 I worked with his own hands in the Bendigo gold-diggings. None of us at home had even heard of this before; but there it was in print, and presently every tit-bitty paper in the country repeated the tale with all the rhetorical adornment at the command of the writer. "The frenzied energy of gold-seekers" was one of the phrases that specially pleased us, and we never failed to throw it at my father's head whenever he was in a bit of a hurry. And still the tale goes on. Quite recently the familiar old story appeared again in an Australian paper, the writer observing that no biography of the deceased artist would be complete without an account of his experiences in the southern goldfields. It seems a pity to prick this pretty bubble; but as a matter of fact my father was never in the goldfields, and through the fifties he was hard at work at home. It was Woolner alone who went in search of the elusive nugget, but presently returned to his art work in England, richer rather in experience than in solid gold. Of one of the evening meetings in Woolner's absence Mr. Arthur Hughes obliges me with the following note"While Woolner was in Australia his Pre-Raphaelite Brothers agreed to draw one another and send the drawingfs out to him; and one day, when two or three of them were about this at Millais' house, Alexander Munro, the sculptor, chanced to call. Millais, having finished his PreRaphaelite Brotherhood subject, got Munro to sit, and drew him, and afterwards accompanied him to the door with the drawing in his hand, to which Munro was making some critical objection that Millais did not agree with. There happened to be passing at the time a couple of rough bricklayers, fresh from their work short pipes and all. To them Millais suddenly reached out from the doorstep and seized one, to his great surprise, and there and then constituted them judges to decide upon the merits of the likeness, while Munro, rather disconcerted, had to stand in the street with his hat off for identification. A most amusing scene!'> Mr. F. G. Stephens tells us something further about these portraits and the final Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood meetings. He writes: "It was in the Gower Street studio that in i853 the variously described meeting of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood then in London occurred in order that the artists present might send as souvenirs to Woolner, then I- 6 82 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [ i849 - in Australia, their portraits, each drawn by another. Millais fell to me to be drawn, and to him I fell as his subject. Unhappily for me, I was so ill at that time that it was with the greatest difficulty I could drag myself to Gower Street; more than that, it was but the day before the entire ruin of my family, then long impending and long struggled against in vain, was consummated. I was utterly unable to continue the sketch I began. I gave it up, and Mr. Holman Hunt, who had had D. G. Rossetti for his vis-a-vzs and sitter, took my place and drew Millais' head. The head which Millais drew of me is now in my possession,. the gift of Woolner, to whom it was, with the others, sent to Sydney, whence he brought the whole of the portraits. back to England. My portrait, which by the way is a good deal out of drawing, attests painfully enough the state of health and sore trouble in which I then was. This meeting was one of the latest "functions" of the PreRaphaelite Brotherhood in its original state. Collinson had seceded, and Woolner emigrated to the "diggings" in search of the gold he did not find. Up to that time the old affectionate conditions still existed among the Brothers, but their end was near. Millais was shooting on ahead; Mr. Holman Hunt was surely, though slowly, following his path towards fortune; D. G. Rossetti had retired within himself, and made no sign before the world; W. M. Rossetti was rising in Her Majesty's service; and I was being continuedly drawn towards that literary work which brought me bread. None of the six had, however, departed from the essentials of the Pre-Raphaelite faith which was in him." "Ferdinand lured by Ariel," painted in I849, was another important picture that warred with the prevailing sentiment of the day, its high finish in every detail and the distinctly original treatment of the subject tending only to kindle anew the animosity of the critics against Millais and the principles. he represented. Even the dealer for whom it was painted as a commission for /ioo refused to take it, and when, later on, it was exhibited at the Academy (now the National Gallery), it was ignominiously placed low down in a corner of one of the long rooms. This shameless breach of contract on the part of the dealer was a bitter disappointment to the young artist, for he could ill afford to keep his pictures long in hand. His parents, never well off, had given up everything for 1850] SALE OF "FERDINAND" 83 " Jack," and determined that he should lack for nothing that could in anywise tend to his advancement, and for the last four years - ever since he was sixteen years of age - he had striven hard to requite their kindness, supplying, as he did from the profits of his work, the greater part of the household expenses at Gower Street. To eke out his precarious income he often went to theatres, where he could earn small sums by making sketches of the actors and actresses; but as he seldom got more than a couple of sovereigns for a finished portrait, this loss of /0oo was a matter of no small moment to his family as well as himself. But now another chance for the sale of " Ferdinand" presented itself. Mr. Frankum, an appreciative friend, brought to the studio a stranger who admired it greatly, and made so many encouraging remarks that Millais felt sure he would buy it. To his disappointment, however, no offer was made. The visitors went away, and he dolefully took up the picture to put it back in its accustomed place, when, to his joy and amazement, he found underneath it a cheque for 150! It was Mr. Richard Ellison, of Sudbrook Holme, Lincolnshire, a well-known connoisseur, whom Mr. Frankum had brought with him, and he had quietly slipped in this cheque unperceived by the artist. The picture has since been successively in the hands of Mr. Wyatt, of Oxford, Mr. Woolner, R.A. (who made quite a little fortune by buying and selling the Pre-Raphaelite pictures), and Mr. A. C. Allen, and is now in the possession of Mr. Henry Makins. From one of his letters to Mr. Wyatt (December, 1850) it seems that Millais made some slight alterations in, or additions to, the work after it had been sold to Mr. Ellison, for he took it again down to Oxford and worked once more upon the background, leaving it to dry the while in the possession of his friend Mr. Wyatt. As to its merits, I need only quote the opinion of Mr. Stephens, who sat for "Ferdinand." In a recent notice of the work he says: " Although the face is a marvel of finish, and unchangeable in its technique, it was begun and completed in one sitting. Having made a very careful drawing in pencil on the previous day, and transferred it to the picture, Millais, almost without stopping to exchange a word with his sitter, worked for about five hours, put down his brushes, and never touched the face again. In execution it 84 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I849 - is exhaustive and faultless. Six-and-thirty years have not harmed it." In a letter to me Mr. Stephens gives some further details about the picture and his sitting for it. He says: " My intimacy with Millais, of course, took a new form with this brotherly agreement [of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood], and it was probably in consequence of this that I sat to him for the head of the Prince in the little picture of ' Ferdinand lured by Ariel,' which, being painted in i849 -j FERDINAN^ 50, was at the Academy in I850, and is the leading example of Prei-i ~i~i-~ Raphaelitism. i "According to Millais, I kii each Brother worked i lights and the general jel views of the Brotheri \ thood at that time. Such being the case, I may ' describe the manner of the artist in this particular instance. In the summer and autumn of i1849 he executed the whole of that wonderful................ ~ background, the de* lightful figures of the elves and Ariel, and he sketched in the Prince himself. The whole was done upon a pure white ground, so as to obtain the greatest brilliancy FIRST SKIETCH FOR Lt "FERDINAND LURED BY ARIEL." 1850. of the pigments. Later on my turn came, and in one lengthy sitting Millais drew my most un-Ferdinandlike features with a pencil upon white paper, making, as it was, a most exquisite drawing of the highest finish and exact fidelity. In these respects nothing could surpass this jewel of its kind. Something like it, but softer and not quite so sculpturesque, exists in the similar study Millais "FERDINAND LURED BY ARIEL." I849 Byienssn of Mr. Henry Mfakins i850o MR. STEPHENS AS "FERDINAND" 87 made in pencil for the head of Ophelia, which I saw not long ago, and which Sir W. Bowman lent to the Grosvenor Gallery in I888. "My portrait was completely modelled in all respects of form and light and shade, so as to be a perfect study for the head thereafter to be painted. The day after it was executed Millais repeated the study in a less finished manner upon the panel, and on the day following that I went again to the studio in Gower Street, where 'Isabella' and similar pictures were painted. From ten o'clock to nearly five the sitting continued without a stop, and with scarcely a word between the painter and his model. The clicking of his brushes when they were shifted in his palette, the sliding of his foot upon the easel, and an occasional sigh marked the hours, while, strained to the utmost, Millais worked this extraordinary fine face. At last he said, ' There, old fellow, it is done!' Thus it remains as perfectly pure and as brilliant as then - fifty years ago - and it now remains unchanged. For me, still leaning on a stick and in the required posture, I had become quite unable to move, rise upright, or stir a limb till, much as if I were a stiffened layfigure, Millais lifted me up and carried me bodily to the dining-room, where some dinner and wine put me on my feet again. Later the till then unpainted parts of the figure of Ferdinand were added from the model and a lay-figure. " It was in the Gower Street studio that Millais was wont, when time did not allow of outdoor exercises, to perform surprising feats of agility and strength. He had, since we first met at Trafalgar Square, so greatly developed in tallness, bulk, and manliness that no one was surprised at his progress in these respects. He was great in leaping, and I well remember how in the studio he was wont to clear my arm outstretched from the shoulder - that is, about five feet from the ground - at one spring. The studio measures nineteen feet six inches by twenty feet, thus giving him not more than fourteen feet run. Many similar feats attested the strength and energy of the artist." And now I must introduce two old friends of my father, whose kindness and generosity to him in his younger days made a deep and lasting impression upon his life. In 1848, when he first became acquainted with them, Mr. Thomas Combe was the Superintendent of the Clarendon Press at Oxford-a man of the most cultivated tastes, and highly 88 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS I1849 - respected and beloved by every member of the University with whom he came into contact -and his wife was a very counterpart of himself. Millais was staying at Oxford at the time, engaged in painting the picture of Mr. Wyatt and his granddaughter referred to in an earlier portion of this chapter, and the Combes, who were among the first to recognise and encourage the efforts of the Pre-Raphaelite School, took him under their wing, treating him with almost parental consideration. In I849 he returned to Oxford, and stayed with them while painting Mr. Combe's portrait, and from that time they became familiar friends, to whom it was always a pleasure to write. The following letters, kindly placed at my disposal by Mrs. Combe, serve to illustrate his life at this period. Mr. Combe, it must be understood, Millais commonly referred to as "The Early Christian"; Mrs. Combe he addressed as "Mrs. Pat." To Yrs. Combe. "I7 HANOVER TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, "November 131K, I850. " MY DEAR MRS. PAT, -Our departure was so velocitous that I had no time or spirits to express my thanks to you before leaving for your immense kindness and endurance of all whimsicalities attached to my nature. I scribble this at Collins' house, being totally incapable of remaining at my own residence after the night's rest and morning's 'heavy blow' of breakfast. The Clarendonian visit, the Bottleyonian privations, and Oxonian martyrdoms have wrought in us (Collins and myself) such a similar feeling that it is quite impracticable to separate. I had to go through the exceedingly difficult task of performing the dramatic traveller's return to his home - embracing ferociously and otherwise exulting in the restoration to the bosom of my family. I say I had to 'perform' this part, because the detestation I hold London in surpasses all expression, and prevents the possibility of my being pleased to return to anybody at such a place. Mind, I am not abusing the society, but the filth of the metropolis. "Now for a catalogue of words to express my thanks to you and Mr. Combe. I have not got Johnson's dictionary I850] CORRESPONDENCE 89 near me, so I am at a loss. Your kindness has defeated the possibility of ever adequately thanking you, so I will conclude with rendering my mother's grateful acknowledgments. "Remember me to all my friends, and believe me, "Yours most sincerely, "JOHN E. MILLAIS." Note. - The " Bottleyonian privations" refer to the hard fare on which Millais and Charles Collins subsisted at the cottage of Mrs. King, at Botley, whilst the former was painting "The Woodman's Daughter." Mrs. Combe's motherly kindness to the two young artists is thus referred to by Dr. Birkbeck Hill in his book on the Rossetti letters: - " I have heard Mrs. Combe relate a story how Millais and Collins, when very young men, once lodged in a cottage nearly opposite the entrance of Lord Abingdon's park close to Oxford. She learnt from them that they got but poor fare, so soon afterwards she drove over in her carriage, and left for them a large meat-pie. Millais, she added, one day said to Mr. Combe, 'People had better buy my pictures now, when I am working for fame, than a few years later, when I shall be married and working for a wife and children.' It was in these later years that old Linnell exclaimed to him, 'Ah, Mr. Millais, you have left your first love, you have left your first love!'" To the same. "83 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, " December 2na, I850. "MY DEAR MRS. PAT, - First I thank you most intensely for the Church Service. The night of its arrival I read the marriage ceremony for the first time in my life, and shall look upon every espoused man with awe. "I am delighted to hear that you are likely to visit Mrs. Collins during the 1851 Exhibition, as you will meet with a most welcome reception from that lady, who is all lovingkindness. "My parents are likely to be out of town at that time. My mother, not having left London for some years, prefers visiting friends in Jersey and in familiar localities in France to remaining in the metropolis during the tumult and excite 9o JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1850 ment of 185I. I hope, however, on another occasion you will have the opportunity of knowing them, in case they should be gone before you are here. "Every Sunday since I left Oxford Collins and I have spent together, attending Wells Street Church. I think you will admit (when in town) that the service there is better performed than any other you have ever attended. We met there yesterday morning a University man of our acquaintance who admitted its superiority over Oxford or Cambridge. I am ashamed to say that late hours at night and ditto in the morning are creeping again on us. Now and then I make a desperate resolution to plunge out of bed when called, which ends in passively lying down again. A late breakfast (I won't mention the hour) and my layfigure [artist's dummy] stares at me in reproving astonishment as I enter my study. During all this time I am so powerlessly cold that I am like a moving automaton. The first impulse is to sit by my stove, which emits a delicious, genial, unwholesome, feverish heat, and the natural course of things brings on total incapacity to work and absolute laziness. In spite of this I manage to paint three hairs on the woodman's little girl's head or two freckles on her face; and so lags the day till dark, by which time the room is so hot, and the glue in the furniture therein so softened by the warmth, that the chairs and tables are in peril of falling to pieces before my face.... But I, like the rest of the furniture, am in too delicate a state to be moved when the call for dinner awakens the last effort but one in removing my body to the table, where the last effort of all is required to eat. "This revives just strength enough to walk to Hanover Terrace in a night so cold that horses should wear greatcoats. Upon arriving there I embrace Collins, and vice versa; Mrs. Collins makes the tea, and we drink it; we then adjourn upstairs to his room and converse till about twelve, when we say good-night, and again poor wretched 'Malay' [he was always called 'Mr. Malay' wherever he went] risks his life in the London Polar voyage, meeting no human beings but metropolitan policemen, to whom he has an obscure intention of giving a feast of tea and thicker bread and butter than that given by Mr. Hales, of Oxford, in acknowledgment of his high esteem of their services. At one o'clock in the morning it is too severely cold for anything I85o] CORRESPONDENCE 91 to be out but a lamp-post, and I am one of that body. [An occult reference to his slimness.] "Respecting my promised visit at Christmas, if nothing happens to prevent me I shall certainly be with you then. Shall probably come the night before, and leave the night after. "I have entirely settled my composition of 'The Flood,' and shall commence it this week. I have also commenced the child's head in the wood scene. " I have, as usual, plenty of invitations out, all of which I have declined, caring no more for such amusements. It is useless to tell you that I am miserable, as this letter gives you my everyday life. " Remember me to Mr. Combe most sincerely, and to all about you, and believe me to remain, "Ever your affectionate friend, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." In these days he frequently referred to and made fun of his extreme slimness, as to which William Millais writes: "My brother, up to the age of twenty-four, was very slight in figure, and his height of six feet tended to exaggerate the tenuity of his appearance. He took pleasure in weighing himself, and was delighted with any increase of weight. I remember when he went to Winchelsea in 1854 to paint the background for the 'Blind Girl,' whilst waiting for a fly at the railway station we were weighed. I just turned twelve stone, and when my brother went into the scales the porter was quite dumbfoundered when three stone had to be abstracted before the proper balance was arrived at. 'Ah! you may well look, my man,' said my brother; 'I ought to be going about in a menagerie as a specimen of a living paperknife.' We all know how that state of things was altered in after years; he might have gone back to his menagerie as a specimen of fine manly vigour and physique." To Mr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, " December i6th, 1850. "DEAR EARLY CHRISTIAN, - I was extremely surprised and delighted at your letter. The kind wish therein that I might stay a little while at Christmas I am afraid can never be 92 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1850 realised, as I can only come and go for that day. My family, as you may imagine, were a little astonished on hearing my intention to leave them at that time. They are, however, reconciled now, and I shall (all things permitting) be with you. I have settled down to London life again for the present, and the quiet, pleasant time at Oxford seems like a PENCIL DESIGN FOR "THE WOODMAN'S DAUGHTER." 1848 dream. I wish the thought of it would take that form instead of keeping me awake almost every night up to three and four o'clock in the morning, at which time the most depressing of all circumstances happens - the performance of 'the Waits.' To hear a bad band play bad music in an empty street at night is the greatest trial I know. I should not like to visit Dr. Leigh's asylum as a patient, so shall 1850] CORRESPONDENCE 93 endeavour to forget all bygone enjoyments, together with present and future miseries that keep me from sleep. "You will perhaps wonder what these ailments can be. I will enumerate them. First, a certainty of passing an unusually turbulent life (which I do not like); secondly, the inevitable enemies I shall create if fully successful; thirdly, the knowledge of the immense application required to complete my works for the coming exhibition, which I feel inadequate to perform. I think I shall adopt the motto 'In ccelo quies,' and go over to Cardinal Wiseman, as all the metropolitan High Church clergymen are sending in their resignations. To-morrow (Sunday) Collins and myself are going to dine with a University man whose brother has just seceded, and afterwards to hear the Cardinal's second discourse. My brother went last Sunday, but could not hear a word, as it was so crowded he could not get near enough. The Cardinal preaches in his mitre and full vestments, so there will be a great display of pomp as well as knowledge.... " And now, my dear Mr. Combe, I must end this 'heavy blow' letter with most affectionate remembrances and earnest assurances to Mrs. Pat that I do not mean to turn Roman Catholic just yet. Also remember me kindly to the Vicar, "And believe me to remain, "Yours most affectionately, "JOHN EVERETT MALAY." After his Christmas visit he wrote To Mrs. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, "December 30oh, I850. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, —The last return was more hurried than the first. I found my portmanteau, when at the station, unstrapped and undirected. We, however, got over those difficulties, and arrived safely. I recollect now that we did not say a farewell word to Mr. Hackman; also forgot to ask you and Mr. Combe to give a small portion of your hair for the rings, there being a place for that purpose. Pray send some for both. "It is needless to say our relatives are somewhat surprised at your kind presents. They are universally admired. I am 94 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS deep in the mystery of purchasing velvets and silk draperies for my pictures [' Mariana 'and' The Woodman's Daughter']. The shopman simpers with astonishment at the request coming from a male biped. I begin to long for these toilsome three months to pass over; I am sure, except on Sundays, never to go out in the daylight again for that time. "I have seen Charley Collins every night since, and see him again to-night. We go to a dancing party tomorrow; at least it is his desire, not mine. The days draw in so early now that it is insanity to stay up late at night, and get up at eleven or twelve the next morning. I wish you were here to read to me. None of my family will do that. [In those days he liked being read to whilst at his work, his mother having done so for years.] " Get the Early Christian, in his idle moments, to design the monastery and draw up the rules... and believe me always " Your affectionate friend, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To the same. "83 GOWER STREET, "January 15 t, 185 1 "MY DEAR MRS. PAT,- I have been so much engaged since I received your letter that I had no time to write to you.... I saw Carlo last night, who has been very lucky in pursuading a very beautiful young lady to sit for the head of 'The Nun.' She was at his house when I called, and I also endeavoured to obtain a sitting, but was unfortunate, as she leaves London next Saturday. "I have progressed a little with both my pictures, and completed a very small picture of a bridesmaid who is passing the wedding-cake through the ring nine times.* I have not yet commenced 'The Flood,' but shall do so this week for certain. " Believe me, wishing a happy new year to both of you, " Yours most affectionately, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." * "The Bridesmaid," now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. DESIGN FOR "THE DELUGE." Circ. x850 CORRESPONDENCE 97 The following letter is characteristic as showing Millais' careful regard to details. The materials asked for were for use in painting " The Woodman's Daughter." To Mr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, "January 28/h, 1851. " MY DEAR MR. COMBE,-You have doubtless wondered at not hearing from me, but want of subject must be my excuse. "I have got a little commission for you to execute for me. You recollect the lodge at the entrance of Lord Abingdon's house, where I used to leave my picture of the Wood [ The Woodman's Daughter']. Well, in the first cottage there is a little girl named Esther; would you ask the mother to let you have a pair of her old walking-boots? I require them sent on to me, as I wish to paint them in the wood. I do not care how old they are; they are, of course, no use without having been worn. Will you please supply the child with money to purchase a new pair? I shall settle with you when I see you in the spring. If you should see a country-child with a bright lilac pinafore on, lay strong hands on the same, and send it with the boots. It must be long, that is, covering the whole underdress from the neck. I do not wish it new, but clean, with some little patternpink spots, or anything of that kind. If you have not time for this task, do not scruple to tell me so. " The Flood ' subject I have given up for this year, and have substituted a smaller composition a little larger than the Wood. The subject is quite new and, I think, fortunate; it is the dove returning to the Ark with the olive-branch. I shall have three figures-Noah praying, with the olive-branch in his hand, and the dove in the breast of a young girl who is looking at Noah. The other figure will be kissing the bird's breast. The background will be very novel, as I shall paint several birds and animals one of which now forms the prey to the other. " It is quite impossible to explain one's intentions in a letter; so do not raise objections in your mind till you see it I-7 98 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i85r finished. I have a horrible influenza, which, however, has not deterred me from the usual 'heavy blow' walks with Fra Carlo... I thought I had forgotten something- the shields - which you most kindly offered to do for me. I was not joking when I hinted to you that I should like to have them. If you are in earnest I shall be only too glad to hang them round my room, for I like them so much better than any paper, that when I have a house of my own you shall see every room decorated in that way.. "Yours devotedly, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." "The Flood" subject (a subject altogether different from that of another picture called "A Flood," painted by the artist in 1870) was never completed as an oil picture, although he made a finished drawing of it, which is now in my possession, having been given to me by my mother. As will be seen from his letter to Mr. Combe, "The Return of the Dove to the Ark" (otherwise known as " The Daughters of Noah," or " The Wives of the Sons of Noah ") had the first place in his mind, and eventually he painted it at the house in Gower Street. It represents two girls (supposed to be inmates of the Ark) clad in simple garments of green and white, and caressing the dove. The picture was shown in the Academy of 1851, along with " The Woodman's Daughter" and " Mariana," and was next exhibited in Paris in 1855 with " The Order of Release" and " Ophelia," when, says Mr. Stephens, "the three works attracted much attention and sharp discussion, which greatly extended Millais' reputation." It was again shown in the International Exhibition of 1862, as were also " Apple Blossoms," "The Order ot Release," and "The Vale of Rest"; and by Mr. Combe's will it has now become the property of the: University of Oxford. On this subject my uncle, William Millais, writes: "The unbiased critic must be constrained to admit that if there is one thing to criticise in the paintings in these days of his glorious youth, it is the inelegance of one or two of the figures. The girls in 'The Return of the Dove' and ' Mariana' are the two most noticeable examples, and I have heard the artist admit as much himself. The head of the. little girl in 'The Woodman's Daughter,' which was altered CORRESPONDENCE 99 after many years much for the worse, was in its original state distinctly charming, although rustic. It was only at the instance of the owner, his half-brother Henry Hodgkinson, that he at last consented to repaint (and spoil) to a considerable extent the whole picture for a slight inaccuracy in the drawing of one head and the arm and boots of the girl. It was a very great misfortune, for the work of the two periods has not 'blended' as they have done so successfully in ' Sir Isumbras.'" Millais' life in 1851, his hopes and ambitions, the pictures he painted, what was said of them and what became of them, are perhaps best related by himself in the following letters: To Mrs. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, "February Iot/z, 1851. "MY DEAR MRS. PAT, - The brevity with which my troublesome request was executed astonished me, and I return you all the thanks due to so kind an attention. The pinafore will do beautifully, as also the boots. The 'Lyra Innocentium' I brought from Oxford at Christmas-time. I have given Collins the one directed for him. To-night I commence for the first time this year evening work which lasts till twelve, and which will continue for the next few months. I am now progressing rapidly; the 'Mariana' is nearly completed, and, as I expected, the gentleman to whom I promised the first refusal has purchased it. The Wood scene is likewise far advanced, and I hope to commence the Noah the latter part of this week. " I have had lately an order to paint St. George and the Dragon for next year. It is a curious subject, but I like it much, as it is the badge of this country. " I see Charley every night, and we dine alternate Sundays at each other's houses. To-night he comes to cheer me in my solitude. I give up all invitations, and scarcely ever see anybody. Have still got my cold, and do not expect that tenacious friend will take any notice of the lozenge warnings....There is at this moment such a dreadful fog that I cannot see to paint, so I devote this leisure hour to you. Remember me affectionately to the Early Christian, and believe me most affectionately yours, JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." 100 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS To Mr. Combe. " 83 GOWER STREET, " April Is/, 1 851. " MY DEAR MR. COMBE, - I am sure you will never have cause to regret purchasing ' The Dove.' It is considered the best picture of the three by all the artists, and is preferred for the subject as well. It will be highly finished to the corners, and I shall design (when it returns from the Academy) a frame suitable to the subject- olive leaves, and a dove at each corner holding the branch in its mouth. " I have designed a frame for Charles' painting of 'Lilies,' which, I expect, will be acknowledged to be the best frame in England. To get 'The Dove' as good as possible, I shall have a frame made to my own design. "With regard to your remark on the payment, rest assured that when it suits you it suits me. If you had not got the picture a gentleman from Birminghlam had decided on having it. One of the connoisseurs has made an offer to Mr. Farrer for the 'Mariana,' which he has declined, being determined to keep my paintings. This from such a dealer as Farrer, the first judge of art in England, proves the investment on such pictures to be pretty safe. " As soon as the pictures get into the Academy I shall be at leisure to give an account to Mrs. Pat of my later struggles. " Believe me, very sincerely yours, " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To thze same. "83 GOWER STREET, "April 15/h, 1851. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, You must be prepared to see an immense literary assault on my works; but I fancy some papers will give me all the credit the others withhold. To tell you the truth, artists know not what course to follow - whether to acknowledge the truth of our style, or to stand out against it. Many of the most important have already (before me) admitted themselves in the wrong - men whose reputation would suffer at the mention of their names! CORRESPONDENCE IOI "I would not ask anything for the copyright, as the engraving will cost nearly five hundred pounds. That in itself is a great risk, particularly as it is the first I shall have engraved. I shall not permit it to be published unless perfectly satisfied with the capabilities of the etcher. It is to be done entirely in line, without mezzotint. I am myself confident of its success; but it is natural that men without the slightest knowledge should be a little shy of giving money for the copyright.* " It was very unfortunate that Charley [Collins] could not complete the second picture for the Exhibition. I tried all the encouraging persuasions in my power; but he was beaten by a silk dress which he had not yet finished. I have ordered another canvas to begin again next week, intending to take a holiday when the warmth comes. Such a quantity of loathsome foreigners stroll about the principal streets that they incline one to take up a residence in Sweden, outside of the fumes of their tobacco. I expect all respectable families will leave London after the first month of the Exhibition, it will be so crowded with the lowest rabble of all the countries in Europe. "Say all the kind things from me you, as a husband, may think fit to deliver to Mrs. Pat, and believe me, "Ever yours affectionately, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To the same. "83 GOWER STREET, "F May 9th, 185. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, - I received the shields this morning, and hasten to thank you most heartily. I hope to see them ranged round my studio next week. No doubt you have seen the violent abuse of my pictures in the Times, which I believe has sold itself to destroy us. That, however, is quite an absurd mistake of theirs, for, in spite of their denouncing my pictures as unworthy to hang on any walls, the famous critic, Mr. Ruskin, has written offering to purchase your picture of ' The Return of the Dove to the Ark.' I received his letter this morning, and have this * The picture (" The Dove ") was never engraved, the woodcut only appearing. I02 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85I evening made him aware of the previous sale. I have had more than one application for it, and you could, I have little doubt, sell it for as much again as I shall ask you. "There are few papers that speak favourably of me, as they principally follow the Times. For once in a way that great leader of public opinion will be slightly out in its conjectures. There are articles in the Spectator and Daily News as great in praise as the others are in abuse. " Where are you, in London or Oxford? Mrs. Pat's letter did not specify the locality. Remember me affectionately to her, and believe me, "Ever sincerely yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To the same. "83 GOWER STREET, "May io1h, I85I. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, I think if your friend admires Charley's sketch he would be particularly charmed with the picture, and would never regret its purchase, as a work so elaborately studied would always (after the present panic) command its price, 1I 50. " Most men look back upon their early paintings- for which they have received but poor remuneration- as the principal instruments of their after wealth. For one great instance, see Wilkie's ' Blind Fiddler,' sold for /20, now worth more than /iooo! Early works are also generally the standard specimens of artists, as great success blunts enthusiasm, and little by little men get into carelessness, which is construed by idiotic critics into a nobler handling. Putting aside the good work of purchasing from those who require encouragement, such patrons will be respected afterwards as wise and useful men amongst knavish fools, who should be destroyed in their revolting attempts to crush us - attempts so obviously malicious as to prove our rapid ascendancy. It is no credit to a man to purchase from those who are opulent and acknowledged by the world, so your friend has an opportunity for becoming one of the first-named wise patrons who shall, if we live, be extolled as having assisted in our (I hope) final success. " Hunt will, I think, sell his; there is a man about it, CORRESPONDENCE I03 and it is a very fine picture. My somewhat showmanlike recommendation of Collins' 'Nun' is a pure matter of conscience, and I hope it will prove not altogether faulty. "Very sincerely yours, "JOHN E. MILLAIS. Hunt wants ~6300 for his picture." To Mrs. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, "28th, I85I. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - I feel it a duty to render you my most heartfelt thanks for the noble appreciation of my dear friend Collins' work and character. I include character, for I cannot help believing, from the evident good feeling evinced in your letter, that you have thought more of the beneficial results the purchase may occasion him than of your personal gratification at possessing the picture. "You are not mistaken in thus believing him worthy of your kindest interests, for there are few so devotedly directed to the one thought of some day (through the medium of his art) turning the minds of men to good reflections and so heightening the profession as one of unworldly usefulness to mankind. " This is our great object in painting, for the thought of simply pleasing the senses would drive us to other pursuits requiring less of that unceasing attention so necessary to the completion of a perfect work. "I shall endeavour in the picture I have in contemplation -' For as in the Days that were Before the Flood,' etc., etc. —to affect those who may look on it with the awful uncertainty of life and the necessity of always being prepared for death. My intention is to lay the scene at the marriage feast. The bride, elated by her happiness, will be playfully showing her wedding-ring to a young girl, who will be in the act of plighting her troth to a man wholly engrossed in his love, the parents of each uniting in congratulation at the consummation of their own and their children's happiness. A drunkard will be railing boisterously at another, less intoxicated, for his cowardice in being somewhat appalled at the view the open window presents - flats of glistening water, revealing but the summits of mountains o04 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85i and crests of poplars. The rain will be beating in the face of the terrified attendant who is holding out the shutter, wall-stained and running down with the wet, but slightly as yet inundating the floor. There will also be the glutton quietly indulging in his weakness, unheeding the sagacity of his grateful dog, who, thrusting his head under his hands to attract attention, instinctively feels the coming ruin. Then a woman (typical of worldly vanity) apparelled in sumptuous Deluge which is s.w elling before their eyes - all but one figure in??V \.?? | their midst, who, upright with closed eyes, prays for mercy for i~iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~iii those around her, a patient example of belief standing with, A! A d, but far from, them placidly awaiting God's will. "I hope, by this great contrast, to excite a reflection on..the probable way in which sinners would meet the coming it death- all on shore hurrying from height to height as the. sea increases; the wretched self-..I.oniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii c o n gr u tio n f t he bachelor who, having but himself to::"-:-R -~ii~:,?ii' " save, believes in the prospect SKETCH FOR "MARIANA." 1850 of escape; the awful feelings of the husband who sees his wife and children looking in his face for support, and presently disappearing one by one in the pitiless flood as he miserably thinks of his folly in not having taught them to look to God for help in times of trouble; the rich man who, with his boat laden with wealth and provisions, sinks in sight of his fellowcreatures with their last curse on his head for his selfishness; the strong man's strength failing gradually as he clings to some fragment floating away on the waste of water; and other great sufferers miserably perishing in their sins. "I have enlarged on this subject and the feelings that I hope will arise from the picture, as I know you will be CORRESPONDENCE I05 interested in it. One great encouragement to me is the certainty of its having this one advantage over a sermon, that it will be all at once put before the spectator without that trouble of realisation often lost in the effort of reading or listening. " My pleasure in having indirectly assisted two friends in the disposal of their pictures is enhanced by the assurance that you estimate their merits. It is with extreme pleasure SKETCHES FOR "MARIANA" AND "THE RETURN OF THE DOVE." 1850 that I received that letter from Mr. Combe in which he approves of his picture of 'The Return of the Dove to the Ark,' universally acknowledged to be my best work, parts of which I feel incapable of surpassing. When you come to town I will show you many letters from strangers desirous of purchasing it, which is the best proof of its value in their eyes. The price I have fixed on my picture is a hundred and fifty guineas; and I hope some day you will let me paint you, as a companion, 'The Dove's First Flight,' which would make a beautiful pendant. Ever yours affectionately, " IOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." io6 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS " Mariana in the Moated Grange" was exhibited this year with the following quotation from Tennyson's well-known poem: "She only said, 'My life is dreary - He cometh not,' she said: She said, 'I am aweary, aweary - I would that I were dead.'" The picture represents Mariana rising to her full height and bending backwards, with half-closed eyes. She is weary of all things, including the embroidery-frame which stands before her. Her dress of deep rich blue contrasts with the red-orange colour of the seat beside which she stands. In the front of the figure is a window of stained glass, through which may be seen a sunlit garden beyond; and in contrast with this is seen, on the right of the picture, an oratory, in the dark shadow of which a lamp is burning. Spielmann's observations on this work are not quite easy to understand. He says the subject is a "Rossettian one, without the Rossettian emotion." * If so, the lack of emotion must be due rather to the poet than to the painter, for, referring to this picture in the Magazine of Art of September, I896, he speaks of Millais' "artistic expression being more keenly sensitive to the highest forms of written poetry than any other painter of his eminence who ever appeared in England." He thinks, too, that the colour is too strong and gay to be quite in harmony with the subject, though immediately afterwards he quotes the particular lines which Millais sought to illustrate:"....But most she loathed the hour When the thick-moated sunbeam lay Athwart the chambers, and the day Was sloping towards his Western bower." The sun, then, was shining in all its splendour, and though poor Mariana loathed the sight, the objects it illuminated were none the less brilliant in colour. And so they appear in the picture. The shadows, too, are there in happy contrast, and every object is seen in its true atmosphere, without any clashing of values. In the Times of May I3th, I85I, Ruskin noticed the picture in his characteristic manner. He was glad to see that Millais' "Lady in blue is heartily tired of painted * The critic, too, seems to forget that all Rossetti's emotional subjects were painted years later. "MARIANA." 1851 By permission of Mr. Henry Makins I85I] AN OBLIGING MOUSE Io9 windows and idolatrous toilet-table," but maintained generally that since the days of Albert Diirer no studies of draperies and details, nothing so earnest and complete, had been achieved in art - a judgment which, says Spielmann, "as regards execution, will hardly be reversed to-day." With delightful inconsequence, Ruskin afterwards added that, had Millais " painted Mariana at work in an unmoated grange, instead of idle in a moated one, it had been more to the purpose, whether of art or life." The picture was sold to Mr. Farrer, the dealer, for one hundred and fifty pounds, and after passing successively through the hands of Mr. B. Windus and Mr. J. M. Dunlop, it now rests with Mr. Henry Makins, who also owns " Ferdinand " and " For the Squire." During the execution of this work Millais came down one day and found that things were at a standstill owing to the want of a model to paint from. He naturally disliked being stopped in his work in this way, and the only thing he could think of was to sketch in the mouse that "Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked Or from the crevice peer'd about." But where was the mouse to paint from? Millais' father, who had just come in, thought of scouring the country in search of one, but at that moment an obliging mouse ran across the floor and hid behind a portfolio. Quick as lightning Millais gave the portfolio a kick, and on removing it the poor mouse was found quite dead in the best possible position for drawing it.* The window in the background of " Mariana" was taken from one in Merton Chapel, Oxford. The ceiling of the chapel was being painted, and scaffolding was of course put up, and this Millais made use of whilst working. The scene outside was painted in the Combes' garden, just outside their windows. Of all the pictures ever painted, there is probably none more truly Pre-Raphaelite in character than one I have already mentioned -" The Woodman's Daughter." It was painted in I850 in a wood near Oxford, and was exhibited in I85I. Every blade of grass, every leaf and branch, and * A similar incident, in which the wished-for model actually appeared at the very moment when its presence was most desired, occurred some vears later, when a collie dog suddenly turned up to serve as a model in " Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind." IIO JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS every shadow that they cast in the sunny wood is presented here with unflinching realism and infinite delicacy of detail. Yet the figures are in no way swamped by their surroundings, every accessory taking its proper place, in subordination to the figures and the tale they have to tell. The contrast between the boy -the personification of aristocratic refinement-and the untutored child of nature is very striking, as was no doubt intended by Mr. Coventry Patmore, whose poem, " The Tale of Poor Maud," daughter of Gerald the woodman, the picture was intended to illustrate. "Her tale is this: In the sweet age, When Heaven's our side the lark, She used to go with Gerald where He work'd from morn to dark, For months, to thin the crowded groves Of the ancient manor park. "She went with him to think she help'd: And whilst he hack'd and saw'd The rich Squire's son, a young boy then, Whole mornings, as if awed, Stood silent by, and gazed in turn At Gerald and on Maud. "And sometimes, in a sullen tone, He 'd offer fruits, and she Received them always with an air So unreserved and free, That shame-faced distance soon became Familiarity." William Millais contributes the following note on this painting: - "I think, perhaps, the most beautiful background ever painted by my brother is to be found in his picture of 'The Woodman's Daughter'- a copse of young oaks standing in a tangle of bracken and untrodden underwood, every plant graceful in its virgin splendour. "Notice the exquisitely tender greys in the bark of the young oak in the foreground, against which the brilliantly clothed lordling is leaning. Every touch in the fretwork tracery all about it has been caressed by a true lover of his art, for in these his glorious early days one can see that not an iota was slurred over, but that every beauty in nature met with its due appreciation at his hands. "Eye cannot follow the mysterious interlacing of all the wonderful green things that spring up all about, where every kind of woodgrowth seenms to be striving to get the upper I85i] THE WOODMAN'S DAUGHTER I I I hand and to reach the sunlight first, where every leaf and tendril stands out in bold relief. " This background was painted near Oxford, in a most secluded spot, and yet my brother had a daily visitor - 'a noble lord of high degree '- who used to watch him work for a minute or two, make one remark, 'Well, you are getting on; you've plenty of room yet,' and then silently disappear. After a time these visits ceased, and upon their renewal my brother had in the interim almost finished the background. The visitor, on seeing his work, exclaimed, 'Why, after all, you've not got it in!' My brother asked what it was. Why, Oxford, of course! You should have put it in.' Millais, who had his back to the town, explained that although Art could do wonders, it had never yet been able to paint all round the compass." To be near his work on this picture Millais stayed in the cottage of a Mrs. King, at Bottley, Lord Abingdon's park, where he was joined by his friend Charles Collins. Mr. Arthur Hughes writes: " F. G. Stephens has described to me how he was with Millais in the country when painting 'The Woodman's Daughter' (the subject from Coventry Patmore), and how Millais was painting a small feather dropped from a bird in the immediate foreground; how he stamped and cursed over it, and then scraped it out, and swore he would get it right - and did. " The strawberries which appear in the picture, as presented by the young aristocrat, were bought in Covent Garden in March. 'I had to pay five-and-sixpence for the four -a vast sum for me in those days, but necessary- I have heard him say, 'and Charlie Collins and I ate them afterwards with a thankful heart.'" It was in this year (I851) that Ruskin took up arms in defence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and no more earnest or more eloquent advocate could they have desired. In the first volume of Modern Painters he insisted that "that only is a complete picture which has both the general wholeness and effect of Nature and the inexhaustible perfection of Nature's details"; and, pointing to " the admirable, though strange pictures of Mr. Millais and Mr. Holman Hunt" as examples of progress in this direction, he added, "they are endeavouring to paint, with the highest possible degree of completion, what they see in Nature, without reference to conventional or established rules; but by no means I 12 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85I to imitate the style of any past epoch. Their works are, in finish of drawing and in splendour of colour, the best in the Royal Academy, and 1 have great hope that they may become the foundation of a more earnest and able school of Art than we have seen for centuries." Here was a heavy blow to the Philistines of the Press; for at this time Ruskin was all but universally accepted as the final authority in matters of Art. But a heavier yet was in store for them. In an addendum to one of his published Lectures on Architecture and Paizzing- lectures delivered at Edinburgh in November, 1853 - he declared that "the very faithfulness of the Pre-Raphaelites arises from the redundance of their imaginative power. Not only can all the members of the [Pre-Raphaelite] School compose a thousand times better than the men who pretend to look down upon them, but I question whether even the greatest men of old times possessed more exhaustless invention than either Millais or Rossetti..... As I was copying this sentence a pamphlet was put into my hand, written by a clergyman, denouncing, 'Woe, woe, woe, to exceedingly young men of stubborn instincts calling themselves PreRaphaelites.' I thank God that the Pre-Raphaelites are young, and that strength is still with them, and life, with all the war of it, still in front of them. Yet Everett Millais, in this year, is of the exact age at which Raphael painted the 'Disputa,' his greatest work; Rossetti and Hunt are both of them older still; nor is there one member so young as Giotto when he was chosen from among the painters to decorate the Vatican of Italy. But Italy, in her great period, knew her great men, and did not despise their youth. It is reserved for England to insult the strength of her noblest children, to wither their warm enthusiasm early into the bitterness of patient battle, and to leave to those whom she should have cherished and aided no hope but in resolution, no refuge but in disdain." Thus spoke the oracle in I853, nor (as will presently appear) was his zeal abated in I855, when "The Rescue" was exhibited, or in 1856, when "Peace Concluded" appeared on the Academy walls. But, strange to say, after that period works of Millais, executed with equal care and with the same fastidious regard for details (the lovely " Vale of Rest " and " Sir Isumbras" for instance), were condemned by him in unmeasured terms. THE WOODMAN'S DAUGHTER. 1849 - 8 CHAPTER IV Millais commences " Ophelia "- Holman Hunt, Charles Collins, William and John Millais paint at Worcester Park Farm - Further letters to the Combes - Millais thinks of going to the East —Commencement of diary and "The Huguenot" - Hunt at work on " The Light of the World " and " The Hireling Shepherd " - Collins' last picture - Millais' idea for " The Huguenot " - He argues it out with Hunt - Meets an old sweetheart - Returns to Gower Street - Miss Siddal's sufferings as model for " Ophelia "- Success of " Ophelia " — Arthur Hughes and Millais-Critics of 1852-Woman in art-General Lempriere on his sittings for " The Huguenot" - Miss Ryan - Miller, of Preston - Letters from Gower Street. "( PHELIA" and "The Huguenot," both of which J Millais painted during the autumn and winter of 1851, are so familiar in every English home that I need not attempt to describe them here. The tragic end of " Hamlet's" unhappy love had long been in his mind as a subject he should like to paint; and now while the idea was strong upon him he determined to illustrate on canvas the lines in which she is presented as floating down the stream singing her last song:"There on the pendent boughs her coronet of weeds Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down the weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element; but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulld the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death." * Near Kingston, and close to the home of his friends the Lemprieres, is a sweet little river called the Ewell, which flows into the Thames. Here, under some willows by the side of a hayfield, the artist found a spot that was in every * Hamlet, act iv. ''5 II6 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85I way suitable for the background of his picture, in the month of July, when the river flowers and water-weeds were in full bloom. Having selected his site, the next thing was to obtain lodgings within easy distance, and these he secured in a cottage near Kingston, with his friend Holman Hunt as a companion. They were not there very long, however, for presently came into the neighbourhood two other members of the Pre-Raphaelite fraternity, bent on working together; and, uniting with them, the two moved into Worcester Park Farm, where an old garden wall happily served as a background for the "Huguenot," at which Millais could now work alternately with the "Ophelia." It was a jolly bachelor party that now assembled in the farmhouse Holman Hunt, Charlie Collins, William and John Millais-all determined to work in earnest; Holman Hunt on his famous "Light of the World" and "The Hireling Shepherd," Charlie Collins at a background, William Millais on water-colour landscapes, and my father on the backgrounds for the two pictures he had then in hand. From ten in the morning till dark the artists saw little of each other, but when the evenings " brought all things home " they assembled to talk deeply on Art, drink strong tea, and discuss and criticise each other's pictures. Fortunately a record of these interesting days is preserved to us in Millais' letters to Mr. and Mrs. Combe, and his diary -the only one he ever kept - which was written at this time, and retained by my uncle William, who has kindly placed it at my disposal. Here are some of his letters-the first of which I would commend to the attention of Max Nordau, referring as it does to Ruskin, whom Millais met for the first time in the summer of this year. It was written from the cottage near Kingston before Millais and Hunt removed to Worcester Park Farm. To Mrs. Combe. "SURBITON HILL, KINGSTON, "July 2nd, 1851. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - I have dined and taken breakfast with Ruskin, and we are such good friends that he wishes me to accompany him to Switzerland this summer.... We are as yet singularly at variance in our opinions upon Art. "OPHELIA." 1852 By permission of H. Graves and Son -1851] CORRESPONDENCE I I9 One of our differences is about Turner. Hie believes that I shall be converted on further acquaintance with his works, and I that he will gradually slacken in his admiration. "You will see that I am writing this from Kingston, where I am stopping, it being near to a river that I am painting for 4 Ophelia.' We get up (Hunt is with me) at six in the morning, and are at work by eight, returning home at seven in the evening. The lodgings we have are somewhat better than Mistress King's at Botley, but are, of course, horribly uncomfortable. We have had for dinner chops and suite of peas, potatoes, and gooseberry tart four days running. We spoke not about it, believing in the certainty of some change taking place; but in private we protest against the adage that 'you can never have too much of a good thing.' The countryfolk here are a shade more civil than those of Oxfordshire, but similarly given to that wondering stare, as though we were as strange a sight as the hippopotamus.* " My martyrdom is more trying than any I have hitherto experienced. The flies of Surrey are more muscular, and have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh. Our first difficulty was... to acquire rooms. Those we now have are nearly four miles from Hunt's spot and two from mine, so we arrive jaded and slightly above that temperature necessary to make a cool commencement. I sit tailor-fashion under an umbrella throwing a shadow scarcely larger than a halfpenny for eleven hours, with a child's mug within reach to satisfy my thirst from the running stream beside me. I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay; likewise by the admission of a bull in the same field after the said hay be cut; am also in danger of being blown by the wind into the water, and becoming intimate with the feelings of Ophelia when that lady sank to muddy death, together with the (less likely) total disappearance, through the voracity of the flies.. There are two swans who not a little add to my misery by persisting in watching me from the exact spot I wish to paint, occasionally destroying every water-weed within their * It was in this year, i850, that the first specimen of the hippopotamus was seen in London. Millais seems to have been of the same opinion as Lord Macaulay, who says: "I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the works of God." 120 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS DESIGN FOR A PICTURE OF "ROMEO AND JULIET." i852 reach. My sudden perilous evolutions on the extreme bank, to persuade them to evacuate their position, have the effect of entirely deranging my temper, my picture, brushes, and palette; but, on the other hand, they cause those birds to look most benignly upon me with an expression that seems to advocate greater patience. Certainly the painting of a picture under such circumstances would be a greater punishment to a murderer than hanging. "I have read the Sheepfolds, but cannot give an opinion I85i] CORRESPONDENCE 121 upon it yet. I feel it very lonely here. Please write before my next. " My love to the Early Christian and remembrances to friends. "Very affectionately yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." THE LAST SCENE, "ROMEO AND JULIET." 1848 To Mrs. Combe. "SURBITON HILL, KINGSTON, "JZuy, 1851. "MY DEAR MRS. PAT,- I have taken such an aversion to sheep, from so frequently having mutton chops for dinner, that I feel my very feet revolt at the proximity of woollen socks. Your letter received to-day was so entertaining that I (reading and eating alternately) nearly forgot what I was devouring. This statement will, I hope, induce Mr. Combe to write to me as a relish to the inevitable chops. The steaks of Surrey are tougher than Brussels carpets, so they are out of the question. "We are getting on very soberly, but have some suspicions that the sudden decrease of our bread and butter is occasioned by the C- family (under momentary aberration) mistaking our fresh butter for their briny. To ascertain the truth, we intend bringing our artistic capacity to bear upon the eatables in question by taking a careful 1 22 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i85I drawing of their outline. Upon their reappearance we shall refer to the portraits, and thereby discover whether the steel of Sheffield has shaven their features. [This they did and made sketches of the butter.] Hunt is writing beside me the description of (his) your picture. He has read Ruskin's pamphlet, and with me is anxious to read Dyce's reply, which I thank you for ordering. In the field where I am painting there is hay-making going on; so at times I am surrounded by women and men, the latter of which remark that mine is a tedious job, that theirs is very warm work, that it thundered somewhere yesterday, that it is likely we shall have rain, and that they feel thirsty, very thirst>. An uneasiness immediately comes over me; my fingers tingle to bestow a British coin upon the honest yeomen to get rid of them; but no, I shall not indulge the scoundrels after their rude and greedy applications. Finding hints move me not, they boldly ask for money for a drop of drink. In the attitude of Napoleon commanding his troops over the Alps, I desire them to behold the river, the which I drink. Then comes a shout of what some writers would call honest country laughter, and I, coarse brutality. Almost every morning Hunt 'and I give money to children; so all the mothers send their offspring (amounting by appearance to twelve each) in the line of our road; and in rank and file they stand curtsying with flattened palms ready to receive the copper donation. This I like; but men with arms larger round than my body hinting at money disgust me so much that I shall paint some day (I hope) a picture laudatory of Free Trade. " Good-night to yourself and Mr. Combe; and believe that I shall ever remain "Most faithfully yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To Mrs. Combe. "KINGSTON, " Juy 28th, I85I. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - Many thanks for Dyce's answer, 'which I received yesterday, and as yet have read but little, and that little imperfectly understand. " In answer to your botanical inquiries, the flowering rush 185I] CORRESPONDENCE I23 grows most luxuriantly along the banks of the river here, and I shall paint it in the picture ['Ophelia']. The other plant named I am not sufficiently learned in flowers to know. There is the dog-rose, river-daisy, forget-me-not, and a kind of soft, straw-coloured blossom (with the word 'sweet' in its name) also growing on the bank; I think it is called meadow-sweet. "I am nightly working my brains for a subject. Some incident to illustrate patience I have a desire to paint. When I catch one I shall write you the description. "I enclose Hunt's key to the missionary picture, with apologies from him for not having sooner prepared it. Begging you to receive his thanks for your kind invitation, believe me, with affectionate regards to Mr. Combe, 6 Most truly yours, JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To Mrs. Combe. "WORCESTER PARK FARM, NEAR CHEAM, SURREY. " September, 85. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - You will see by the direction that we have changed our spot, and much for the better. Nothing can exceed the comfort of this new place. Little to write about except mishaps that have occurred to me. "I have broken the nail of the left-hand little finger off at the root; the accident happened in catching a ball at cricket. I thought at first the bone was broken, so I moved off at once to a doctor, who cut something, and said I should lose the nail. I have been also bedridden three days from a bilious attack, from which, through many drugs, I am recovered. " We all three live together as happily as ancient monastic brethren. Charley [Collins] has immensely altered, scarcely indulging in an observation. I believe he inwardly thinks that carefulness of himself is better for his soul. Outwardly it goes far to destroy his society, which now, when it happens that I am alone with him, is intolerably unsympathetic. I wish you could see this farm, situated on one of the highest hills in this county. In front of the house there is one of the finest avenues of elm trees I ever saw. " We live almost entirely on the produce of the farm, I24 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i85I which supplies every necessary. Collins scarcely ever eats pastry; he abstains, I fancy, on religious principles. " Remember me affectionately to the mother who pampers him, and believe me "Most affectionately yours, "JOHN MILLAIS." To /Mr. Combe. C" WORCESTER PARK FARM, " October 15 /z, 185 I. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, -You must have felt sometimes quite incapable of answering a letter. Such has been my state. I have made two fruitless attempts, and shudder for the end of this. Hunt and self are both delighted by your letter, detecting in it a serious intent to behold us plant the artistic umbrella on the sands of Asia. He has read one of the travels you sent us, The Camp and the Caravan, and considers the obstacles as trifling and easy to be overcome by three determined men, two of whom will have the aspect of ferocity, being bearded like the pard. Hunt can testify to the fertility of my upper lip, which augers well for the under soil. It therefore (under a tropical sun) may arrive at a Druidical excellence. "Two of the children belonging to the house have come in and will not be turned out. I play with them till dinner and resume work again afterwards. The weather to-day has prevented my painting out of doors, so I comfortably painted from some flowers in the dining-room. Hunt walked to his spot, but returned disconsolate and wet through. Collins worked in his shed and looked most miserable; he is at this moment cleaning his palette. Hunt is smoking a vulgar pipe. He will have the better of us in the Holy Land, as a hookah goes with the costume. I like not the prospect of scorpions and snakes, with which I foresee we shall get closely intimate. Painting on the river's bank (Nile or Jordan) as I have done here will be next to throwing oneself into the alligators' jaws, so all watersketching is put aside. Forgive this nonsensible scribble. I am only capable of writing my very kindest remembrances to Mrs. Pat, in which Charley and Hunt join. " Most faithfully yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." I 85I ] EXTRACTS FROM DIARY I12S At this time Millais had serious thoughts of going to the East with Hunt, but eventually gave up the idea. And now commences the diary, written closely and carefully on sheets of notepaper. The style savours somewhat of the conversation of Mr. Jingle; but, as in that gentleman's short and pithy sentences, the substance is clear. EXTRACTS FROM DIARY. I am advised by Coventry Patmore to keep a diary. Commence one forthwith. - To-day, October i6/k, I851, worked on my picture [' The Huguenot']; painted nasturtiums; saw a stoat run into a hole in the garden wall; went up to it and endeavoured to lure the little beast out by mimicking a rat's or mouse's squeak -not particular which. Succeeded, to my astonishment. He came half out of the hole and looked in my face, within easy reach. " Lavinia (little daughter of landlady) I allowed to sit behind me on the box border and watch me paint, on promise of keeping excessively quiet; she complained that her seat struck very cold. In the adjoining orchard, boy and family knocking down apples; youngest sister but one screaming. Mother remarked, 'I wish you were in Heaven, my child; you are always crying'; and a little voice behind me chimed in, 'Heaven! where God lives?' and (turning to me) 'You can't see God.' Eldest sister, Fanny, came and looked on too. Told me her mother says, about a quarter to six, ' There 's Long-limbs (J. E. M.) whistling for his dinner; be quick and get it ready.' Played with children en masse in the parlour before their bedtime. Hunt just come in.. Sat up till past twelve and discovered first-rate story for my present picture. "October I 7/A. -Beautiful morning: frost on the barn roofs and the green before the houses. Played with the children after breakfast, and began painting about nine. Baby screaming - commenced about ten o'clock. Exhibition of devilish passion, from which it more particularly occurred to me that we are born in sin. Family crying continually, with slight intermission to recover strength. Lavinia beaten and put under the garden clothes-pole for being naughty, to stay there until more composed. Perceiving that to be an uncertain period, I kissed her wet eyes and released her from her position and sat her by me. Quite dumb for some I26 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS time; suddenly tremendously talkative. These are some of her observations: 'We have n't killed little Betsy (the pig) yet; she means to have little pigs herself. Ann (the servant) says she is going to be your servant, and me your cook, when you get married.' Upon asking her whether she could cook, she answered, 'Not like the cooks do.' At five gave up painting. Bitter cold. Children screaming again. " October I8t. - Fine sunny morning. Ate grapes. Little Fanny worked at a doll's calico petticoat on a chair beside me. Driven in by drizzling weather, I work in the parlour; Fanny, my companion, rather troublesome. Coaxed her out. Roars of laughter outside the window- F. flattening her nose against the pane. Mrs. Stapleton called, with married son and daughter, and admired my pictures ecstatically. Collins gone; went home after dinner. Sat with Hunt in the evening; pelted at a candle outside with little white balls that grow on a shrub. Composed design of 'Repentant Sinner laying his head in Christ's bosom.' * "October Ig h (Sunday). — Expected Rossetti, who never came. Governor [his father] spent the day with us, saw Hunt's picture and mine, and was delighted with them, Went to church. Capital sermon. Poor Mr. Lewis felt very gloomy all the day; supposed it to be the weather, that being dull and drizzling.... Found two servants of Captain Shepherd- both very pretty- one of whom I thought of getting to sit for my picture. Traversing the same road home, entered into conversation with them. Both perfectly willing to sit, and evidently expecting it to be an affair of a moment-one suggesting a pencil-scratch from which the two heads in our pictures could be painted! Bade them good-night, feeling certain they will come to the farm to-morrow for eggs or cream. Went out to meet Collins, but found we were too early, so came home and had tea. I (too tired to go outagain) sit down and write this, whilst Hunt sets out once more with a large horn-lantern. Despair of ever gaining my right position, owing to hearing this day that the Committee of Judgment of the Great Exhibition have awarded a bronze medal in approbation of the most sickening horror ever produced,' The Greek Slave.' Collins returned with his hair cut as close as a man in a House of Correction. * This sketch, now in my possession, was never transferred to canvas. EXTRACTS FROM DIARY I 27 "October 20/. -Finished flowers after breakfast, after which went out to bottom of garden and commenced brick wall. Received letter from James Michael - complimentary,, as containing a prediction that I shall be the greatest painter England ever produced. Felt languid all day. Finished work about five and went out to see Charley. Walked on afterwards to meet Hunt, and waited for him. In opening the gate entering the farm, met the two girls. Spoke further with one on the matter of sitting. " Oclober 2 ISt. - Painted from the wall and got on a great deal. Bees' nest in the planks at the side of the house, laid open by the removal of one of them for the purpose of smoking the inmates at night and getting the honey. Was induced by the carpenter to go up on the ladder to see what he called a curiosity. Did so, and got stung on the chin.... I walked on to meet Hunt with Collins. Met him, with two Tuppers, who dined with us off hare. All afterwards saw the burning of the bees, and tasted the honey.... Read songs in the Princess. Have greater (if possible) veneration for Tennyson. "October 22nd. -Worked in the warren opposite the wall and got on well, though teased, while painting, by little Fanny, who persisted in what she called 'tittling' me.... Hunt proposed painting 'for a lark,' the door of a cupboard beside the fireplace. Mentioned it to the landlady, who gave permission, with the assurance that if she did not approve of it she should scrub it out. Completed it jointly about two o'clock in the morning. " October 23rd. - Our landlady's marriage anniversary. Was asked by her some days back for the loan of our apartments to celebrate the event. 'If we were not too high they would be glad to see us.' " Painted on the wall; the day very dull. A few trees shedding leaves behind me, spiders determinedly spinning webs between my nose and chin.... Joined the farmers and their wives. Two of them spoke about cattle and the new reaping-machine, complaining, between times, about the state of affairs. Supped with them; derived some knowledge of carving a chicken from watching one do so. Went to bed rather late, and read In Memoriam, which produced a refining melancholy. Landlady pleased with painting on cupboard." Of this painting, by the way, my uncle, William Millais, I28 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS has another and somewhat different tale to tell. He says: — "Our landlady, Mrs. B., held artists to be of little account, and my brother exasperated her to a degree on one occasion. The day had been a soaking wet one. None of us had gone out, and we were at our wits' end to know what to do. Jack, at Hunt's suggestion, thought it would be a good joke to paint on one of the cupboard doors. There were two - one on either side of the fireplace. Mrs. B. had gone to market. On coming into the room on her return, and seeing what had been done a picture painted on the cupboard door-she was furious; the door had only lately been 'so beautifully grained and varnished.' Hunt in vain tried to appease her. She bounced out of the room, saying she would make them pay for it. " It happened on the following day that the Vicar and a lady called upon the young painters; and on being shown into the sitting-room, Mrs. B. apologised for the 'horrid mess' (as she called it) on the cupboard door. They inquired who had done it, and on being told that Mr. Millais was the culprit, the lady said she would give Mrs. B. in exchange for the door the lovely Indian shawl she had on; so when the painters came in from their work, Mrs. B. came up cringingly to my brother and said the only thing he could do was to paint the other cupboard! He did n't paint the other door, but I believe Mrs. B. had the shawl." And now, in continuation of the " Diary," we read: — "October 24th.- Another day, exactly similar to the previous. Felt disinclined to work. Walked with Hunt to his place, returned home about eleven, and commenced work myself, but did very little. Read Tennyson and Patmore. The spot very damp. Walked to see Charlie about four, and part of the way to meet Hunt, feeling very depressed. After dinner had a good nap, after which read Coleridge-some horrible sonnets. In his Life they speak ironically of ' Christabel,' and highly of rubbish, calling it Pantomime. " October 25th. - Much like the preceding day. All went to Town after dinner; called at Rossetti's and saw Madox Brown's picture ' Pretty Baa-lambs,' which is very beautiful. Rossetti low-spirited; sat with him. "October 26tk, Sunday.- Walked out with Hunt. Called upon Woolner and upon Mrs. Collins to get her to come I85I] EXTRACTS FROM DIARY ' 29 and dine with us; unwell, so unsuccessful. Felt very cross and disputable. Charlie called in the evening; took tea, and then all three off to the country seat. " October 27th. - Dry day. Rose later than the others, and had breakfast by myself. Painted on the wall, but not so well; felt uncomfortable all day.. " October 28t/. - My man, Young, brought me a rat after breakfast. Began painting it swimming, when the governor made his appearance, bringing money, and sat with me whilst at work. After four hours rat looked exactly like a drowned kitten. Felt discontented. Walked with parent out to see Collins painting on the hill, and on, afterwards, to Young's house. He had just shot another rat and brought it up to the house. Again painted upon the head, and much improved.... My father and myself walked on to see Hunt, whose picture looks sweet beyond mention. "October 29g. -Cleaned out the rat, which looked like a lion, and enlarged picture. After breakfast began ivy on the wall; very cold, and my feet wet through; at intervals came indoors and warmed them at the kitchen fire. Worked till half-past four; brought all the traps in and read In Memoriam. " October 3o0t. - Felt uneasy; could not paint out of doors, so dug up a weed in the garden path and painted it in the corner... Went to bed early, leaving Hunt up reading Hooker. "October 3Ist. - Splendid morning.... Painted ivy on the wall, and got on a great deal. After tea, about halfpast ten, went to see powder-mill man (Young's) to commission him to fetch Hunt's picture home. Sat in their watch-house with him and his brother, who eulogised a cat, lying before the fire, for its uncommon predilection to fasten on dogs' backs, also great ratting qualities. Returned home about eleven and read In Memoriam. Left Hunt up reading Hooker. "November 4th. - Frightfully cold morning; snowing. Determined to build up some kind of protection against the weather wherein to paint. After breakfast superintended in person the construction of my hut - made of four hurdles, like a sentry-box, covered outside with straw. Felt a 'Robinson Crusoe' inside it, and delightfully sheltered from the wind, though rather inconvenienced at first by the straw, dust, and husks flying about my picture. Landlady came down to see I-9 130 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85I me, and brought some hot wine. Hunt painting obstinate sheep within call.... This evening walked out in the orchard (beautiful moonlight night, but fearfully cold) with a lantern for Hunt to see effect before finishing background, which he intends doing by moonlight. " November th. - Painted in my shed from ivy. Hunt at the sheep again. My man Young, who brought another rat caught in the gin and little.disfigured, was employed by Hunt to hold down a wretched sheep, whose head was very..unsatisfactorily painted, after..i rthe most tantalising exhibition of obstinacy. Evening passed off much as others. Read Browning's tragedy, Blot on the Scutcheon, and was astonished at its faithfulness to Nature i inglll. From soe and Shakespearian perfectness..ai i. Mr. Lewis, the clergyman of the adjoining parish, called, and kindly gave us an invitation to his place when we liked. Had met him at dinner at our "November 6th. - Beautiful morning; much warmer than yesterday. Was advised by 'THE HUGUENOT." 1852 Hunt to paint the rat, but felt First idea disinclined. After much inward argument took the large box containing Ophelia's background out beside Hunt, who again was to paint the sheep. By lunch time had nearly finished rat most successfully. Hunt employed small impudent boy to hold down sheep. Boy not being strong enough, required my assistance to make the animal lie down. Imitated Young's manner of doing so, by raising it up off the ground and dropping it suddenly down. Pulled an awful quantity of wool out in the operation. Also painted ivy in the other picture. "November 7th. - After breakfast examined the rat [in the painting]. From some doubtful feeling as to its perfect portraiture determined to retouch it. Young made his ap I85I] EXTRACTS FROM DIARY 3'I pearance apropos, with another rat, and (for Hunt) a new canvas from the carrier at Kingston. Worked very carefully at the rat, and finally succeeded to my own and everyone's taste. Hunt was painting in a cattle-shed from a sheep. Letters came for him about three. In opening one we were most surprised and delighted to find the Liverpool Academy (where his 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' picture is) sensible enough to award him the annual prize of ~5o. He read the good news and painted on unruffled. The man Young, holding a |l. most amicable sheep, expressed surprising pleasure at the fortunate circumstance. He said he had seen robins in the spring of the year fight so | fiercely that they had allowed him to take them up in his ||1| hands, hanging on to each VI other. During the day Hunt. had a straw hut similar to mine built, to paint a moon-;.t light background to the fresh 1| canvas. Twelve o'clock. Have 'i this moment left him in it, a:E - cheerfully working by a lantern........ from some contorted apple tree trunks, washed with the "THE HUGUENOT." 1852 phosphor light of a perfect Second idea moon-the shadows of the branches stained upon the sward. Steady sparks of moonstruck dew. Went to bed at two o'clock. "November 8/h. -Got up before Hunt, who never went to bed till after three. Painted in my hut, from the ivy, all day. After dinner Collins went off to town. Hunt again painting out of doors. Very little of moonshine for him.... Advised H. to rub out part of background, which he did. " November 9gh, Sunday. - Whilst dressing in the morning saw F. M. Brown and William Rossetti coming to us in the avenue. They spent the day with us. All disgusted with the Royal Academy election.... They left us for the train, 132 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I851 for which they were too late, and returned to sleep here. Further chatted and went to bed. " November I I t. - Lay thinking in bed until eleven o'clock. Painted ivy. Worked well; Hunt painting in the same field; sheep held down by Young. " November I6t, Sunday. - To church with Collins; Hunt, having sat up all night painting out of doors, in bed. After church found him still in his room; awoke him and had breakfast with him, having gone without mine almost entirely, feeling obliged to leave it for church. Hunt and self went out to meet brother William, whom we expected to dinner. Met him in the park. He saw Hunt's picture for the first time, and was boundless in admiration; also equally eulogised my ivy-covered wall. All three walked out before dinner... In what they called the Round-house saw a chicken clogged in a small tank of oil. Young extricated it, and, together with engine-driver's daughter, endeavoured (fruitlessly) to get the oil off. Left them washing fowl, and strolled home. "November I7/. - Small stray cat found by one of the men, starved and almost frozen to death. Saw Mrs. Barnes nursing it and a consumptive chicken; feeding the cat with milk. Painted at the ivy. Evening same as usual." Some further details are supplied in the following letter: — To Mir. Combe. WORCESTER PARK FARM, " November 17 th, 185 I. "MY DEAR COMBE, - Doubtless you have been wondering whether it is my intention ever to let you have your own property ['The Dove' picture]. We hope to return almost immediately, when I shall touch that which requires a little addition, and directly send it on to you, a letter preceding it to let you know. Hunt has gained the prize at Liverpool for the best picture in the exhibition there. The cold has become so intense that we fear it is impossible to further paint in the open air. We have had little straw huts built, which protect us somewhat from the wind, and therein till to-day have courageously braved the weather. "Carlo is still daily labouring at the shed, Hunt nightly working out of doors in an orchard painting moonlight COLLINS' LAST PICTURE 133 (employed also in the daytime on another picture), and myself engaged in finishing another background (an ivy-covered wall). There is one consolation which strengthens our powers of endurance - necessary for the next week. It is to behold the array of cases, which are the barns of our summer harvest, standing in our entrance hall.. "Very faithfully yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." At this time Charles Collins was engaged on the background for a picture, the subject of which he had not yet settled upon. He got as far as placing upon the canvas an old shed with broken roof and sides, through which the sunlight streamed; with a peep outside at leaves glittering in the summer breeze; and at this he worked week after week with ever varying ideas as to the subject he should ultimately select. At last he found a beautiful one in the legend of a French peasant, who, with his family, outcast and starving, had taken refuge in the ruined hut and were ministered to by a saint. The picture, however, was never finished. Poor Collins gave up painting in despair and drifted into literature; and when the end came, Holman Hunt, who was called in to make a sketch of his friend, was much touched to find this very canvas (then taken off the strainers) lying on the bed beside the dead man. The tragedy of vanished hopes! But I must now return to the " Diary." "November I8t. - Little cat died in the night, also chicken. Painted ivy. In the afternoon walked to Ewell to procure writing-paper; chopped wood for our fire, and found it warming exercise. "November 19h. - Fearfully cold. Landscape trees upon my window-panes. After breakfast chopped wood, and after that painted ivy.... See symptoms of a speedy finish to ny background. After lunch pelted down some remaining apples in the orchard. Read Tennyson and the Thirty-nine Articles. Discoursed on religion. "November 20oh.- Worked at the wall; weather rather warmer.... Evening much as usual. * Charles Collins was a regular contributor to Household Words, but is chiefly known by his Cruise on Wheels, a work which met with success. 134 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1851 "November 2 IS. - Change in the weather - cloudy and drizzling. All three began work after breakfast. Brother William came about one o'clock. After lunch found something for him to paint. Left him to begin, and painted till four, very satisfactorily. "November 22nd.-All four began work early. William left at five, promising to come again on Monday.... After dinner Hunt and Collins left for London, the former about some inquiries respecting an appointment to draw for Layard, the Nineveh discoverer. After they were gone, I wrote a very long letter to Mrs. Combe." The letter is perhaps worth insertion here, as showing the writer's attitude towards Romanism, which at that time he was supposed to favour, and as an indication of the general design of his picture, "The Huguenot." It ran thus: To Mrs. Combe. " WORCESTER PARK FARM, " Nvember 2 2 nd, 185. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - My two friends have just gone to town, leaving me here all alone. I dine to-morrow (Sunday) with a very old friend of mine-Colonel Lempriere - resident in the neighbourhood, or else should go with them. Mr. Combe's letter reached me as mine left for Oxford. Assure him our conversation as often reverts to him as his thoughts turn to us in pacing the quad. The associates he derides have but little more capacity for painting than as many policemen taken promiscuously out of a division. "I have no Academy news to tell him, and but little for you from home. Layard, the winged-bull discoverer, requires an artist with him (salary two hundred a year) and has applied for one at the School of Design, Somerset House. Hunt is going to-night to see about it, as, should there be intervals of time at his disposal for painting pictures, he would not dislike the notion. One inducement to him would be that there, as at Jerusalem, he could illustrate Biblical history. Should the appointment require immediate filling, he could not take it, as the work he is now about cannot be finished till March. " My brother was with us to-day, and told me that Dr. "THE HUGUENOT" I35 Hesse of Leyton College, understood that I was a Roman Catholic (having been told so), and that my picture of ' The Return of the Dove to the Ark' was emblematical of the return of all of us to that religion -a very convenient construction to put upon it! I have no doubt that likewise they will turn the subject I am at present about to their advantage. It is a scene supposed to take place (as doubtless it did) on the eve of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. I shall have two lovers in the act of parting, the woman a Papist and the man a Protestant. The badge worn to distinguish the former from the latter was a white scarf on the left arm. Many were base enough to escape murder by wearing it. The girl will be endeavouring to tie the handkerchief round the man's arm, so to save him; but he, holding his faith above his greatest worldly love, will be softly preventing her. I am in high spirits about the subject, as it is entirely my own, and I think contains the highest moral. It will be very quiet, and but slightly suggest the horror of a massacre. The figures will be talking against a secret-looking garden wall, which I have painted here. "Hunt's moonlight design is from the Revelation of St. John, chapter iii., 20th verse, 'Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.' It is entirely typical, as the above. A figure of our Saviour in an orchard abundant in fruit, holding in one hand a light (further to illustrate the passage 'I am the Light of the world'), and the other hand knocking at a door all overgrown by vine branches and briars, which will show how rarely it has been opened. I intend painting a pendant from the latter part of the same, 'And will sup with him, and he with Me.' It is quite impossible to describe the treatment I purpose, so will leave you to surmise. " Now to other topics. We are occasionally visited by the clergyman of the adjoining parish, a Mr. Lewis. He was at Oriel, and knows Mr. Church, Marriot, and others that I have met. He is a most delightful man and a really sound preacher, and a great admirer and deplorer of Newman. "I cannot accompany 'The Dove' to the 'Clarendon,' as I have un-get-off-ably promised to spend Xmas with the family I feast with to-morrow, Captain Lempriere's. He is from Jersey, and knew me when living there, and I would not offend him. I36 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85I " Our avenue trees snow down leaves all day long, and begin to show plainly the branches. Collins still fags at the shed, Hunt at the orchard, and I at the wall. Right glad we shall all be when we are having our harvest home at Hanover Terrace, which we hope to do next Tuesday week. "Yours most faithfully "(at twelve o'clock), "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS. "Please send me a letter, or else I shall be jealous." Millais having in this letter stated his conception of "The Huguenot," it may be as well,, 1, gperhaps, to describe here its actual genesis. After finishing the back>y Tground for " Ophelia," he began making sketches of a pair of lovers whispering by a wall, d in and having announced his ins tention of utilising them in a l i picture, he at once commenced.. apainting the background, tmeree lo kly leaving spaces for the figures. suand Hunt discussed together every picture which either of.......................them had in contemplation; "THE. HUGN.." and, discoursing on the new Third idea subject one evening in September, Millais showed his pencildrawings to Hunt, who strongly objected to his choice, saying that a simple pair of lovers without any powerful story, dramatic or historical, attaching to the meeting was not sufficiently important. It was hackneyed ad n wanting in general interest. "Besides," he quietly added, "it has always struck me as being the lovers' own private affair, and I feel as if we were intruding on so delicate an occasion by even looking at the picture. I protest against that kind of Art." Millais, however, was unconvinced, and stuck to his point, saying the subject would do quite subjwell; at any raquite well; at any rate, he should go on working at " his wall." COLLINS' ASCETICISM '37 In the evening, when the three friends were gathered together, poor Charlie Collins came in for more "chaff" than his sensitive nature could stand. He had refused some blackberry tart which had been served at dinner, and Millais, knowing that he was very fond of this dish, ridiculed his "mortifying the flesh" and becoming so much of an ascetic. It was bad for him, he said, and his health was suffering in consequence; to which he humorously added, that he thought Collins kept a whip upstairs and indulged in private flagellations. At last Collins retreated to his room, and Millais, turning to Hunt, who had been quietly sketching the while, said, "Why didn't you back me up? You know these unhealthy views of religion are very bad for him. We must. try and get him out of them." "I intend to leave them alone," replied the peaceful Hunt; "there 's no necessity for us to copy him." A pause. "YWell," said Millais, "what have you been doing all this time while I have been pitching into Charlie?" Hunt showed him some rough sketches he had been making - some of them being the first ideas for his famous "THE HUGUENOT." 1852 picture, " The Light of the Fourth idea World." Millais was delighted with the subject, and looking at some other loose sheets on which sketches had been made, asked what they were for. "Well," replied Hunt, producing a drawing, "you will see now what I mean with regard to the lack of interest in a picture that tells only of the meeting or parting of two lovers. This incident is supposed to have taken place during the Wars of the Roses. The lady, belonging to the Red Roses, is within her castle; the lover, from the opposite camp, has scaled the walls, and is persuading her to fly with him. She is to be represented as hesitating between love and duty. I38 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i85I You have then got an interesting subject, and I would paint it with an evening sky as a background." "Oh," exclaimed Millais, delighted, " that's the very thing for me! I have got the wall already painted, and need only put in the figures." "But," said Hunt, "this is a castle wall. Your background won't do." "That does n't matter," replied Millais, " I shall make one......... of the lovers belonging to the...........|ii.............;.. Red and the other to the W hite Rose faction; or one must be.a - supporter of King Charles. and the other a Puritan."... After much discussion Millais......... suddenly remembered the opera; of The HugenoIs, and bethought him that a most _dramatic scene could be made from the parting of the two lovers. He immediately began to make small. sketches for the grouping of the figures, and wrote to his mother to go at once to the British Museum to look up the costumes. Probably more sketches were made for this picture and for the " Black Brunswicker" than prufor any others of his works. I have now a number of them "THE HUGUENOT." C852 in my possession, and there Fifth and final composition for the picture must have been many more. They show that his first idea was to place other figures in the picture - two priests holding up the crucifix to the Huguenot, whose sweetheart likewise adds her persuasions. Again, other drawings show a priest on either side of the lovers, holding up one of the great candles of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Protestant waving them back with a gesture of disapproval. These ideas, however, were happily discarded - probably as savouring too much of the wholly obvious - and the artist wisely trusted to the simplicity of the pathos which marked the character of his final decision. THE HUGUENOT. I852 By permission of H. Graves and Son I85I] EXTRACTS FROM DIARY I4I It will be seen then that the picture was not (as has been publicly stated) the outcome of a visit to Meyerbeer's opera of The Huguenots; though some time after Millais' decision he and Hunt went to the opera to study the pose and costumes of the figures. And now for some final extracts from the " Diary." " November 23rd, Sunday. - Went to morning church; felt disgusted with the world, and all longing for worldly glory going fast out of me. Walked, miserable, to Ewell to spend the day with my old friends the Lemprieres, who were at Sir John Reid's, opposite. Called there, and was received most kindly. From there went on to afternoon church. On our way met Mr. and Mrs. B, my old flame. Wished myself anywhere but there; all seemed so horribly changed; the girl I knew so well calling me 'Mr. Millais' instead of 'John,' and I addressing 'Fanny' as 'Mrs. B ---.' She married a man old enough to be her father; he, trying to look the young man, with a light cane in his hand. Walked over his grounds (which are very beautiful) and on to the new church, wherein the captain joined us, and shook hands most cordially with me. A most melancholy service over, all walked home. Mrs. B distant, and with her mother. Mr. B did not accompany us; found him at the captain's house -an apparently stupid man, plain and bald. Was perfectly stupefied by surprise at Mrs. B asking me to make a little sketch of her ugly old husband. They left, she making, at parting, a bungling expression of gladness at having met me. Walked over the house and gardens (Ewell), where I had spent so many happy months.... Had a quiet dinner - the captain, Mrs., Miss and Harry. In the evening drew Lifeguard on horseback [' Shaw, the Lifeguardsman,' shown at the I898 Exhibition] for little Herbert, and something for Emily. Left them with a lantern (the night being dark) to meet my companions at the station. Got there too early, and paced the platform, ruminating sorrowfully on the changes since I was there last.... Reached home wet through. Good fire, dry shoes, and bed. "November 241/.- Painted on brick wall. Mr. Taylor and his son (an old acquaintance of mine at Ewell), in the army, and six feet, came to see me. Both he and his father got double barrels; pheasant in son's pocket. They saw my pictures, expressed pleasure, and in leaving presented me with cock bird. Lemprieres came. The parents and Miss I42 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I85i thought my pictures beautiful. I walked with them to the gate at the bottom of the park, and there met Emma and Mrs. B —out of breath. They had driven after the captain, also to see my landscape. Offered to show them again, but the father would not permit the trouble. Parted, promising to spend Christmas with them. Tried to resume painting. All then took usual walk. Hunt, during day, had a letter containing offer for his picture of ' Proteus.' He wrote accepting it.... "November 28th. - William came and worked at his sketch, and Sir John Reid called to see my pictures. Were both highly pleased. Took them to see Hunt's and Collins'. Mr. B- officious and revelling in snobbiness at having such distinguished persons at the farm. " November 29lh. - All painted after breakfast - Hunt at grass; myself, having nearly finished the wall, went on to complete stalk and lower leaves of Canterbury-bell in the corner. Young, who was with Hunt, said he heard the staghounds out; went to discover, and came running in in a state of frenzied excitement for us to see the hunt. Saw about fifty riders after the hounds, but missed seeing the stag, it having got some distance ahead. Moralised afterwards, thinking it a savage and uncivilised sport. "November 3oh0, Sunday.-All rose early to get in time for train at Ewell, to spend the day at Waddon. Were too late, so walked into Epsom, expecting there to meet a train. Found nothing before past one. Walked towards the downs. and to church at eleven, where heard very good sermon. Collins so pious in actions that he was watched by kindlooking man opposite. Very wealthy congregation.... Walked afterwards to Mrs. Hodgkinson's, but found she was too unwell to sit with us, so dined with her husband; capital dinner. Sat with Mrs. H — in her bedroom, leaving them smoking downstairs, and took leave about half-past nine, Mr. Hodgkinson walking with us to station. "December Ist. - All worked; bitter cold. William left us after dinner. Hunt read a letter from purchaser of his picture; some money in advance enclosed in the same, and an abusive fragment of a note upon our abilities. Felt stupidly ruffled and bad-tempered.... "December 3rd.- Hunt... painted indoors, and from the window worked at some sheep driven opposite; I still at dandelions and groundsel. Kitten most playful about me; I851] EXTRACTS FROM DIARY I 4 3 lay in my lap whilst painting, but was aroused by a little field-mouse. rustling near the box. Made a pounce upon, but failed in catching it. A drizzling rain part of the day. Cut a great deal of wood, to get warm.... Returned, and found a clerk from Chancery Lane lawyers in waiting upon me, who camne to induce me to attend chambers and swear to my own signature upon Mr. Drury's will. Told him I could not attend earlier than next week. "December 41h. - Painted the ground. Hunt expected Sir George Glynn (to see the pictures), who came, accompanied by his curate and another gentleman, about the middle of the day, and admired them much. Suggested curious alterations to both Collins' and Hunt's; that C. should make the 'Two Women Grinding- at the Mill' in an Arabian tent, evidently supposing that the subject was biblical instead of in futurity. After they were gone Hunt's uncle and aunt came, both of whom understood most gratifyingly every object except my water-rat, which the male relation (when invited to guess at it) eagerly pronounced to be a hare. Perceiving by our smile that he had made a mistake, a rabbit was next hazarded, after which I have a faint recollection of a dog or cat being mentioned by the spouse, who had brought with her a sponge-cake and bottle of sherry, of which we partook at luncheon. Mutual success and unblemished happiness was whispered over the wine, soon after which they departed in a pony-chaise. Laughed greatly over the day, H. and self.... " December 5/k. - This day hope to entirely finish my ivy background. Went down to the wall to give a last look. The day mild as summer; raining began about twelve. Young came with a present of a bottle of catsup. William made his appearance about the same time, and told us of the brutal murdering going on again in Paris. He did not paint. Young brought a dead mole that was ploughed up in the field I paint in. Though somewhat acquainted with the form of the animal, was much surprised at the size and strength of its fore-hands. Finished, and chopped wood.... In the evening Will slept, HS. wrote letters, C. read the Bible, and self Shakespeare; and, later, walked out with H. in the garden, it being such a calm, warm night. Requested landlady to send in bill, intending to leave tomorrow. Had much consultation about the amount necessary for her, in consideration of the many friends entertained I44 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I852 by us. Felt, with Collins, a desire to sink into the earth and come up with pictures in our respective London studios." On the following day Millais returned to Gower Street, his backgrounds being now completed; set to work at once on the figures in the two pictures, Miss Siddal (afterwards Mrs. D. G. Rossetti) posing as the model for "Ophelia." Mr. Arthur Hughes has an interesting note about this lady in The Letters of D. G. Rossetti to William Allingham. He says:" Deverell accompanied his mother one day to a milliner's. Through an open door he saw a girl working with her needle: he got his mother to ask her to sit to him. She was the future Mrs. Rossetti. Millais painted her for his 'Ophelia' - wonderfully like her. She was tall and slender, with red, coppery hair and bright consumptive complexion, though in these early years she had no striking signs of ill-health. She had read Tennyson, having first come to know something about him by finding one or two of his poems on a piece of paper which she brought home to her mother wrapped round a pat of butter. Rossetti taught her to draw; she used to be drawing while sitting to him. Her drawings were beautiful, but without force. They were feminine likenesses of his own." Miss Siddal had a trying experience whilst acting as a model for " Ophelia." In order that the artist might get the proper set of the garments in water and the right atmosphere and aqueous effects, she had to lie in a large bath filled with water, which was kept at an even temperature by lamps placed beneath. One day, just as the picture was nearly finished, the lamps went out unnoticed by the artist, who was so intensely absorbed in his work that he thought of nothing else, and the poor lady was kept floating in the cold water till she was quite benumbed. She herself never complained of this, but the result was that she contracted a severe cold, and her father (an auctioneer at Oxford) wrote to Millais, threatening him with an action for /50 damages for his carelessness. Eventually the matter was satisfactorily compromised. Millais paid the doctor's bill; and Miss Siddal, quickly recovering, was none the worse for her cold bath. D. G. Rossetti had already fallen in love with her, struck with her "unworldly simplicity and purity of aspect"qualities which, as those who knew her bear witness, Millais succeeded in conveying to the canvas - but it was not until I860 that they married. I851] SUCCESS OF "OPHELIA" I45 About the year 1873 "Ophelia" was exhibited at South Kensington; and Millais, going one day to have a look at it, noticed at once that several of the colours he had used in 1851 had gone wrong —notably the vivid green in the water-weed and the colouring of the face of the figure. He therefore had the picture back in his studio, and in a short time made it bloom again, as we see it to-day, as brilliant and fresh as when first painted. This is one of the great triumphs of his Pre-Raphaelite days. The colour, substance, and surface of his pictures have remained as perfect as the day they were put on. Nothing in recent Art I venture to say, exceeds the richness, yet perfect harmony, of the colours of Nature in "Ophelia" and "The Blind Girl "; and the same thing may be said of " The Proscribed Royalist," " The Black Brunswicker," and the women's skirts in " The Order of Release"; whilst the man's doublet in " The Huguenot" and the woman's dress in " Mariana" are perhaps the most daring things of the kind ever attempted. Perhaps the greatest compliment ever paid to " Ophelia," as regards its truthfulness to Nature, is the fact that a certain Professor of Botany, being unable to take his class into the country and lecture from the objects before him, took them to the Guildhall, where this work was being exhibited, and discoursed to them upon the flowers and plants before them, which were, he said, as instructive as Nature herself. Mr. Spielmann is enthusiastic in his praise of the picture. He speaks of it as " one of the greatest of Millais' conceptions, as well as one of the most marvellously and completely accurate and elaborate studies of Nature ever made by the hand of man.... The robin whistles on the branch, while the distraught Ophelia sings her own death-dirge, just as she sinks beneath the water with eyes wide open, unconscious of the danger and all else. It is one of the proofs of thegreatness of this picture that, despite all elaboration, less worthy though still superb of execution, the brilliancy of colour, diligence of microscopic research, and masterly handling, it is Ophelia's face that holds the spectator, rivets his attention, and stirs his emotion." The picture passed successively through the hands of Mr. Farrer, Mr. B. Windus, and Mr. Fuller Maitland, before it came into the possession of Mr. Henry Tate, to whose generosity the public are indebted for its addition to the I-1O I46 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS National Gallery of British Art. It was exceedingly well engraved by Mr. I. Stevenson in I866. In the I852 Exhibition, when both the "Ophelia" and "' The Huguenot " were exhibited, there was another beautiful " Ophelia" by Millais' friend, 'Arthur Hughes, who is good enough to send me the following note about the two pictures: - " One of the nicest things that I remember is connected with an 'Ophelia' I painted, that was exhibited in the Academy at the same time as his [Millais'] own most beautiful and wonderful picture of that subject. Mine met its fate high up in the little octagon room;* but on the morning of the varnishing, as I was going through the first room, before I knew where I was, Millais met me, saying, 'Are n't you he they call Cherry?' (my name in the school). I said I was. Then he said he had just been up a ladder looking at my picture, and that it gave him more pleasure than any picture there, but adding also very truly that I had not painted the right kind of stream. He had just passed out of the Schools when I began in them, and I had a most enormous admiration for him, and he always looked so beautiful —tall, slender, but strong, crowned with an ideal head, and (as Rossetti said) 'with the face of an angel.' He could not have done a kinder thing, for he knew I should be disappointed at the place my picture had." "The Huguenot" was exhibited with the following title and quotation in the catalogue: "A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the Roman Catholic badge. (See The Protestanl Reformation in France, vol. ii., p. 352.) When the clock of the Palais de Justice shall sound upon the great bell at daybreak, then each good Catholic must bind a strip of white linen round his arm and place a fair white cross in his cap." (The Order of the Duc de Guise.) Mr. Stephens says: — " When' A Huguenot' was exhibited at the Royal Academy, crowds stood before it all day long. Men lingered there for hours, and went away but to return. It had clothed the old feelings of men in a new garment, and its pathos found almost universal acceptance. This was the picture that brought Millais to the height of his reputation. Nevertheless, even 'A Huguenot' did not silence all challengers. There were critics who said that * Commonly known to artists of the period as " The Condemned Cell." I85I] WOMAN IN ART I47 the man's arm could not reach so far round the lady's neck, and there were others, knowing little of the South, who carped at the presence of nasturtiums in August. It was on the whole, however, admitted that the artist had at last conquered his public, and must henceforth educate them." The picture is said to have been painted under a commission from a Mr. White (a dealer) for /I50; but, as a fact, Millais received /250 for it, which was paid to him in instalments, and in course of time the buyer gave him,50 more, because he had profited much by the sale of the engraving. The dealers no doubt made immense sums out of the copyrights alone of "The Huguenot," "The Black Brunswicker," and " The Order of Release "; while - as to " The Huguenot" at least - the poor artist had to wait many months for his money and to listen meanwhile to a chorus of fault-finding from the pens of carping scribblers, whose criticism, as is now patent to all the world, proved only their ignorance of the subject on which they were writing. In turn, every detail of the picture was objected to on one score or another, even the lady herself being remarked upon as "very plain." No paper, except Punch and the Spectator [William Rossetti], showed the slightest glimmering of comprehension as to its pathos and beauty, or foresaw the hold that it eventually obtained on the heart of the people. But Tom Taylor, the Art critic of Punch at that time, had something more than an inkling of this, as may be seen in his boldly-expressed critique in Punch, vol. i. of 1852, pp. 216, 2I7. The women in "Ophelia" and " The Huguenot" were essentially characteristic of Millais' Art, showing his ideal of womankind as gentle, lovable creatures; and, whatever Art critics may say to the contrary, this aim - the portrayal of woman at her best -is one distinctly of our own national school. As Millais himself once said, "It is only since Watteau and Gainsborough that woman has won her right place in Art. The Dutch had no love for women, and the Italians were as bad. The women's pictures by Titian, Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Velasquez are magnificent as works of Art; but who would care to kiss such women? Watteau, Gainsborough, and Reynolds were needed to show us how to do justice to woman and to reflect her sweetness." A sweeping statement like this is, of course, open to 148 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS exceptions - there are many notable examples in both French and Italian Art in which woman receives her duebut in the main it is undoubtedly true. "The Huguenot" was the first of a series of four pictures embracing "The Proscribed Royalist," "The Order of Release," and "The Black Brunswicker," each of which represents a more or less unfinished story of unselfish love, in which the sweetness of woman shines conspicuous. The figure of the Huguenot (as I have said before) was painted for the most part from Mr. Arthur (now General) Lempriere-an old friend of the family-and afterwards completed with the aid of a model. Of his sittings to Millais during 1853, Major-General Lempriere kindly sends me the following:-" It was a short time before I got my commission in the Royal Engineers in the year I853 (when I was about eighteen years old) that I had the honour of sitting for his famous picture of ' The Huguenot.' If I remember right, he was then living with his father and mother in Bloomsbury Square. I used to go up there pretty often and occasionally stopped there. His father and mother were always most kind. "After several sittings I remember he was not satisfied with what he had put on the canvas, and he took a knife and scraped my head out of the picture, and did it all again. He always talked in the most cheery way all the time he was painting, and made it impossible for one to feel dull or tired. I little thought what an honour was being conferred on me, and at the time did not appreciate it, as I have always since. "I remember, however, so well his kindness in giving me, for having sat, a canary-bird and cage, and also a water-colour drawing from his portfolio (' Attack on Kenilworth Castle'), which, with several others of his early sketches which I have, were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts after his death. " I was abroad, off and on, for some thirty years after I got my commission, and almost lost sight of my dear old friend. He, in the meantime, had risen so high in his profession that I felt almost afraid of calling on him. One morning, however, being near Palace Gate, I plucked up courage, and went to the house and gave my card to the butler, and asked him to take it in to Sir John, which he did; and you can imagine my delight when Sir John A PATRON OF ART 149 almost immediately came out of his studio in his shirtsleeves, straight to the front door, and greeted me most heartily. " I was most deeply touched, about a fortnight before he died, at his asking to see me, and when I went to his bedside at his putting his arms round my neck and kissing me." A lovely woman (Miss Ryan) sat for the lady in "The Huguenot," Mrs. George Hodgkinson, the artist's cousin, taking her place upon occasion as a model for the left arm of the figure. Alas for Miss Ryan! her beauty proved a fatal gift: she married an ostler, and her later history is a sad one. My father was always reluctant to speak of it, feeling perhaps that the publicity he had given to her beauty might in some small measure have helped (as the saying is) to turn her head. The picture was the first of many engraved by his old friend, Mr. T. 0. Barlow, R.A., and exceedingly well it was done. It eventually became the property of Mr. Mliller, of Preston, and now belongs to his son. As this gentleman bought several of my father's works, and is so frequently mentioned hereafter, the description of him by Madox Brown in D. G. Rossetti's Letters may be of interest: - " This Miller is a jolly, kind old man, with streaming white hair, fine features, and a beautiful keen eye like Mulready's. A rich brogue (he was Scotch, not Irish), a pipe of Cavendish, and a smart rejoinder, with a pleasant word for every man, woman, and child he met, are characteristic of him. His house is full of pictures, even to the kitchen. Many pictures he has at all his friends' houses, and his house at Bute is also filled with his inferior ones. His hospitality is somewhat peculiar of its kind. His dinner, which is at six, is of one joint and vegetables, without pudding. Bottled beer for drink. I never saw any wine. After dinner he instantly hurries you off to tea, and then back again to smoke. He calls it meat-tea, and boasts that few people who have ever dined with him come back again." Mr. W. M. Rossetti describes him as " one of the most cordial, large-hearted, and lovable men I ever knew. He was so strong in belief as to be a sceptic as regards the absence of belief. I once heard him say, in his strong Scotch accent, 'An atheist, if such an animal ever really existed.' What the supposititious animal would do, I forget." Amongst other work of Millais this year was the retouch 15I JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [r85I ing of "Cymon and Iphigenia," a picture done by him in his seventeenth year, and now vastly improved by a fresh impression of colour and a further Pre-Raphaelite finish of the flowers in the foreground. " Memory," a little head of the Marchioness of Ripon, was also painted this winter. A more important work, however, is "The Bridesmaid," for the head of which Mrs. Nassau Senior sat. " The Return of the Dove" was also finished and sent to its owner along with the following letter:To Mr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, "December 91/, 185I. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, -I have touched your picture, 'The Return of the Dove,' at last; and hope it will arrive safely. " We came home on Saturday night. My brother brought the pictures on Monday evening, one of them not having dried completely. We have all fortunately escaped colds, which (considering the great exposure we have undergone) is something to be thankful for. My first two days of London have again occasioned that hatred for the place I had upon returning to it last year. I had a headache yesterday, and another about to come now. "You will perceive in some lights a little dulness on the surface of 'The Dove's' background. It will all disappear when it is varnished, which must not be for some little time. It is almost impossible to paint a picture without some bloom coming on the face of it. " You recollect it was arranged between Charley and myself that it should hang nearest the window, beside Hunt's. Please let it be a little leaned forward. " My mother is talking with Hunt approvingly of the works I have just had home, and I cannot write more without jumbling what they are saying in this. "In great haste, "Most sincerely yours, " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS. "'The Dove' will be sent off to you to-morrow (Wednesday) by rail. The reason for hanging the picture nearer the light is that it is much darker than Collins' 'Nun.' " t85t] CORRESPONDENCE I'5 Another letter addressed to Mrs. Combe, and referring to the sale of " Ophelia," carries us to the end of this year. To Mrs. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, "December I 2 t, 185I. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - I enclose a little book written by Miss Rossetti. I promised to send it to you a long while ago, but have only recollected it now. I think you will greatly admire it. My remembrance of it is but slight, not having read it for several years. I was glad to hear that 'The Dove' arrived safely, and that it gains upon acquaintance. " Mr. Farrar bought the' Ophelia'the day before yesterday for three hundred guineas. The day previous, a Mr. White, a purchaser, was so delighted with it that he half closed with me. I expect he will call to-morrow to say that he will have it, when he will be much disappointed to hear of its sale. "Wilkie Collins is writing a Christmas book for which I have undertaken to make a small etching. " Hunt's prize picture of 'Proteus' is sold to a gentleman at Belfast-which sets him (H.) up in opulence for the winter. I saw Charley last night. He is just the same as ever-so provokingly quiet. I fancy you have rather mistaken my feelings towards him; not a whit of our friendship has diminished. I was with him last night, but little or nothing he said. I played backgammon with the matron. "Let me know what you think of the 'Rivulets.'.. "In haste, yours sincerely, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." CHAPTER V 1852-1853 The volunteer movement - Reminiscences of Turner - Meeting with Thackeray - Millais proposes to paint "Romeo and Juliet" - Goes to " George Inn" at Hayes - Begins painting "The Proscribed Royalist" - Arthur Hughes on his sittings - Millais in the hunting field -" The Order of Release "- Models for this picture - Funeral of the Duke of Wellington - Amusing letter to Mr. Hodgkinson - Millais' first expedition to Scotland - With the Ruskins to Northumberland and thence to Callander —Their life in the North -Discussion on architecture - Dr. Acland - The Free Kirk in 1852- Meeting with Gambart and Rosa Bonheur-Millais' comic sketch-book —He is slighted by the Academy- Foreboding on the election day- He is made an A.R.A. F ROM the first day of 1852 down to the opening of the Royal Academy Millais continued to work away at the figures in "The Huguenot" and "Ophelia," devoting all his spare time to pictures of smaller importance. His life at this period may be gathered from the following letters, in which some reference to historical events invites a word of explanation. A series of revolutions in France, commencing in 1848, culminated in the famous coup d'etat of December, 1851, when for the first time universal suffrage was established, and as the result, Prince Louis Napoleon was re-elected President of the Republic for ten years certain. He soon let them know what that meant. No sooner was he installed in office than he banished into exile the distinguished general officers who were opposed to him, disbanded the National Guard and appointed others in their place, dismissed eightythree members of the late legislative assembly, and finally put an end to the liberty of the Press. These high-handed proceedings threw all England into a ferment. The newspapers raised a howl of execration against the tyrant; and the government, taking alarm, established the Channel Fleet and called into existence a number of volunteer rifle corps to aid in the national defence. A glimpse at what followed will be found in the correspondence. 1 2 "THE RACE MEETING." I853 1852] CORRESPONDENCE I55 To Mr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, "January 91h, 1852. "DEAR MR. COMBE, -Believe me, I have made many struggles to write to you, but somehow or other I have felt stupid and incompetent directly my hand clenched the pen. I fear it is my normal state now, but feel something must be written. " I have been working most determinedly since Christmas, but (curiously) with little effect. I have given up all visiting, so I cannot be accused on that score of giving little evidence of progress. " Next week I hope to sail into a kind of artistic tradewind, which will carry me on to the Exhibition.... The whole of this day I have been drawing from two living creatures embracing each other. " In looking over this, I see so many 'I haves' that I feel inclined to throw it into the fire and cab off to the Great Western rail and on to Oxford, to show you that I have not forgotten you. My Christmas was a very leisurely time. I went into the country the day before, and returned the day after in a state of great depression. Both Hunt and Charley have been, I fancy, much in the same condition as myself in regard to working. The latter has not even yet determined upon his composition. I doubt whether he will have time to complete it for the Academy. Hunt came back from Oxford most elaborately delighted. I was astonished at the quantity of visiting he managed in the time. "They say that Turner has left ~200,000- some estimate it at double that amount - which I very much doubt. I hear from good authority that a great portion of this money is going towards some houses for decayed limners, which is very creditable to Mr. T. Probably some of the worst living daubers are looking forward to the time when they are incapable of spoiling more canvases, and are lodged in the Turner Almshouses. C- has no chance, for they must be oil-painters. "I hope my garrulous capacity will return to me soon, when I intend writing to Mrs. Pat. Remember me to her, and believe me "Most sincerely yours, "JOHN E. MILLAIS." 156 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i852 My father had but a slight acquaintance with Turner, though my mother was among the few of her sex who were ever permitted to enter the great landscape painter's house. She knew him well, and from her I obtained some interesting notes, which I give in her own words: " I used frequently to go and see Turner and his pictures, and though very few ladies were ever allowed to enter his doors, he was very kind to young artists. lie lived like a hermit in a great lonely house in Queen Anne Street; his walls hung with many of his own pictures, which he refused to part with. He the..... c,would not sell these on any account whatever, and one day he showed me a blank cheque which had been sent to him a r to fill in to any amount he chose if he would "prsell one of his pictures, but he laughed at the idea and sent back the cheque immediately. oneftharist's...T" The glass over many _ of his works was broken, STUDIES FOR "THE ROYALIST." 1853 and large pieces of brown paper were pasted over the cracks, for he would not be at the expense of new ones. Mr. Frith rightly described the studio when he said 'the walls were almost paperless, the roof far from weatherproof, and the whole place desolate in the extreme'; whilst Munro * used to say that the very look of the place was enough to give a man a cold. "Withal he had a great sense of humour, and when telling a story would put his finger to the side of his nose, and look exactly like 'Punch.' "Apropos of his physiognomy, he always resisted any attempt to make a likeness of him; but one day after dinner * Munro of Novar, who lived in Hamilton Place, possessed several of Turner's best works, for which he had paid sums not exceeding 200oo. Amongst them was one of the artist's masterpieces, " The Grand Canal at Venice," which, after Mr. Munro's death, was purchased by Lord Dudley for nearly,8ooo. I852] REMINISCENCES OF TURNER I57 at the house of a friend, Count d'Orsay, a clever artist made an excellent drawing of him drinking his coffee; but this was done without Turner's knowledge, and is, I believe, one of the few portraits of him now extant. "He disliked society, and was intimate with very few people, his principal friends being Mr. Bicknell, of Denmark Hill, and Miunro, of Novar, though at times he frequented the Athenaeum Club. " After a while he took an intense dislike to his home in Queen Anne Street, and only Munro knew where he removed 11> 11 11 1 MILLAIS ON THE WAY TO PAINT "THE ROYALIST" Sketch by William Millais to. Before this, however, he spent much time with Mr. Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, near Leeds, for whom he painted many pictures. I have stayed there, and examined the exquisite water-colour landscapes he did there, as well as a large portfolio of birds' eggs and feathers, also in watercolours, most beautifully finished. "Turner had a fancy for architecture, but the lodges which he planned at Farnley are of a sort of heavy Greek design, and not quite a success. "His one pleasure in the days when I knew him was driving himself about the country; but he was evidently not accustomed to horses, as he paid no attention to them, being too much engrossed in admiring the landscape, and in consequence, one day Mr. Fawkes' family, who were committed to.......................co n ry b the w s v de ty o accu tom e............................ he p id n.at nto.t.he,be n.................ri g th lnd ca e a d n on e quence,..... r.Fwe' aiy howr omitdt 158 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I 852 his tender mercies, found themselves sitting in the middle of the road with the trap on the top of them. "Turner told me that the way in which hie studied clouds was by taking a boat, which he anchored in some stream, and then lay on his back in it, gazing at the heavens for hours, and even days, till he had grasped some effect of light which he desired to transpose to canvas. " No one was admitted to his house in Queen Anne Street unless specially invited. There was a sort of little iron grille in the centre of the front door, through which the old housekeeper used to look and see who was there. "As an example of the rarity of visitors, the late Lord Lansdowne, who was a great lover of Art and a friend of Turner's, told me that after receiving no answers to his letters he resolved to beard the llion in his den. He therefore went and knocked at the door, e i when a shock-head appeared I I at the iron grating, and its owner called out, 'Cats'-meat, I suppose?' 'Yes, cats'-rm eat,' >8 sanswered his lordship, and MILLAIS AT DINNER. 1853 squeezed himself in.* By William Millais "After leaving Queen Anne Street, Turner seems to have taken a fancy to a little old-fashioned inn near Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. It was kept by a widow, and he asked if he might be allowed to live there. On her inquiring as to who he was, he said to her, 'What is your name?' to which she replied, ' Mrs. Brown.' 'Well,' said Turner, II 'm Mr. Brown.' In this house he remained for some years, visiting only his friend Munro and the Athenaoum Club. " At last, one day he became seriously ill, and it was only by his constantly calling out for Lady Eastlake (the wife of the President of the Royal Academy), and on her being sent for, that his identity became known." * The Marquis of Lansdowne was a man of great benevolence and culture. At his table Millais and his wife constantly dined, and there they met all the literary and artistic celebrities of the day. He gave exquisite entertainments, and after dessert always called in the Italian cook to compliment him on the feast. l85s2] CORRESPONDENCE 159 Returning now to the correspondence, I find the following letter: To Mr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, "February 5ih, 1852. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, - Don't be alarmed at this mighty circular, and think that the French have already landed. They have not come here yet; but, to guard against such an awful event, the gentlemen of London are arming themselves and forming rifle clubs; and those who cannot give their personal assistance are aiding us by subscriptions for the purpose of furnishing rifles to those who cannot afford them, yet are willing to join in the service of their country clerks and the like. My governor is on the Committee, and my brother and self have joined. Several very influential men are at the head of it. A number of ladies are getting up subscriptions, and 'the smallest contributions will be most thankfully received.' In the City there are a thousand double-barrelled riflemen, composed of the gentlemen of the Stock Exchange. I am sure you will see that such measures are stringent upon all Englishmen, and excuse my troubling you on such a subject. "Faithfully yours, "JOHN MILLAIS. "P. S. - The advertisement of our club has appeared three times in The Times, and we already muster upwards of two hundred gentlemen." Amongst those whom he saw much of at this period, and to whom he was greatly attached, were his cousins George Hodgkinson and his wife Emily. He frequently paid them Saturday-to-Monday visits, when he was working in London, during the years 1851-54. He also corresponded pretty regularly with Mrs. Hodgkinson, who has most kindly placed her letters at my disposal. To Mrs. Combe. " 83 GOWER STREET, " March 6fh, 1852. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - I promised some time back to write you a letter. Pardon me, for I am a wretched corres i6o JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1852 pondent. I am just now working so hard that I am glad to escape anything like painting, but I confess, writing is almost as difficult a thing with me. "I have very lately made the acquaintance of Mr. Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair. He called unexpectedly upon me - not to see my picture, he said, but to know me. I have returned his call, and find him a most agreeable man. Mr. Pollen and his brother also have paid me a visit, accompanied by Mr. Dean. Pollen's SKETCH OF MILLAIS PAINTING THE BACKGROUND OF "THE ROYALIST" By William Millais brother is a good judge of painting, which is a rare thing in our days. "I am getting on slowly, but I hope surely. Ophelia's head is finished, and the Huguenot is very nearly complete; the Roman Catholic girl is but sketched in. I am waiting for a young lady who has promised me to sit for the face, but is going to undergo an operation on her throat, which will prevent her doing so for a fortnight or more.... I rarely see Hunt or Carlo, as they, like myself, stay at home in the evenings and go to rest early, so that they may rise likewise. I believe they are progressing with their work, but I daresay you know more of them than I do. " Yours most trul, " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." 18521 CORRESPONDENCE 6 I To lMr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, " M/a-ch, 1852. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, -Recklessly I commence this letter, without the least knowledge of what is to follow. This night I promised Hunt to spend the evening with him, but am restrained by the immensity of the distance, feeling rather tired from a long walk we took together on Sunday, to Mr. Windus, the owner of all the celebrated pictures of the late William Turner, R.A. He has some ^ — J7~-a^' 2sC4g G/,-+ /z-rr r-~ C< v5-, C " g-,-^ of-,6k cr -K, - -, -,DINNER AT THE "GEORGE INN," HAYES. 1853 Sketched by William Millais of the most valuable works in the world -upwards of fifty of Turner's most excellent paintings, some of which are valued at fifteen hundred pounds, and amongst his collection he has several of mine - one large and some small - besides drawings. Some day, when you are in town, I must take you there. It is really a treat to see the house alone. The furniture is of the most magnificent kind, and the rooms are open to the public, I think, twice a week. It is at Tottenham, about seven miles from London. " Farrer has sent the picture of ' Mariana' to Edinburgh, to gratify the Caledonian curiosity, those people having expressed a wish to see some of the Pre-Raphaelite pictures. I am continually receiving Scotch papers with frightfully long criticisms, a vast quantity of praise and, of course, I- II I62 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS advice. To-day I have purchased a really splendid lady's ancient dress - all flowered over in silver embroidery - and I am going to paint it for 'Ophelia.' You may imagine it: is something rather good when I tell you it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds. "'The Huguenot' I have been working at to-day, but not very satisfactorily, having been disturbed all the afternoon. "The Rifle Club is getting on splendidly. They have taken rooms in the Strand, and are increasing rapidly in numbers. All the country clubs are joining; so ultimately it will become a very prodigious assembly. At present the rooms they have are but offices in which they have the proposed uniform -grey turned up with green. The costume will be drawn in the Illustrated News of next week. When the corps is regularly formed, it is likely (as most of the members are private gentlemen and well-off) that there will be some place for members from the country to meet and dine, and reading-rooms for the accommodation of the whole body. I begin to feel tired at the sight of paints, having worked without intermission for ten months. This year I hope to enjoy the summer without a millstone of a picture hanging about my neck. The subject I intend doing will not require much out-of-door painting - nothing but a sheet of water and a few trees - a bit of flooded country, such as I have seen near you at Whitham. "Yours most sincerely, " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To the same. "83 GOWER STREET, "March 3ISt, I852. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, - Many thanks for your kind wish for my visiting you after Easter. I am partly under an engagement to accompany a friend to Paris should the weather be favourable. With regard to 'The Huguenot'picture, I am happy to say I sold it to a gentleman, the very morning after you and Mrs. Pat called, for two hundred and fifty pounds. I have finished another picture, and have only to paint the skirt of Ophelia's dress, which will not, I think, I852] CORRESPONDENCE I63 take me more than Saturday. I have every hope of their being placed in very good positions, the principal hanger, Mr. Leslie, having called twice to see them, each time expressing great admiration. "In great haste, most sincerely yours, "JOHN E. MILLAIS." To the same. "83 GOWER STREET, "Sunday, April i 8t, I852. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, - Forgive my not having answered your letter sooner. Ever since the sending in of the pictures I have been running about London, calling, and taking walks into the country. You ask me to describe the dance of Mrs. Collins. I truly wish that you had been there. It was a delightful evening. Charlie [Collins] never got beyond a very solemn quadrille, though he is an excellent waltzer and polka dancer. Poor Mrs. C. was totally dumb from a violent influenza she unfortunately caught that very afternoon. She received all her guests in a whisper and a round face of welcome. There were many lionsamongst others the famous Dickens, who came for about half an hour and officiated as principal carver at supper. Altogether there were about seventy people. I heard many very cheering remarks about my pictures from Academicians, one of whom went so far as to say that they were the best paintings in the Exhibition. I am in great hope of finding them in capital positions after these compliments. "I have just returned from the Foundling Church. The service is exceptionally good, and the children look very pretty. During the Litany one of the smallest fidgeted one of her shoes off, which fell through the palisades and on to the head of some person below. With all the evident care that is bestowed upon their education, I am astonished that the masters do not forbid the use of thumbs and saliva in turning over leaves. " Next week, or rather this, I mean to commence painting again, for I cannot stand entire laziness. 'Romeo and Juliet' is to be my next subject —not so large as either of this year's. It is an order from a Mr. Pocock, one of the secretaries of the Art Union. 'The Huguenot,' which I64 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I852 was sold to Mr. White, a dealer, has since been sold by him to Mr. Windus, the man who has all the celebrated Turners, and has already one of my paintings -'Isabella,' from Keats' poem. I am glad that it is in so good a collection, but cannot understand a man paying perhaps double the money I should have asked him. " With love to Mrs. Pat, believe me, "Most truly yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." Note. - Nothing was done towards the painting of " Romeo and Juliet" beyond the sketch which the artist made for it in 1848, and which was shown by Mr. John Clayton at the Millais Exhibition in I898, and an additional design of the balcony scene [1852]. After discussing various subjects with Mr. Pocock, Millais' suggestion of the "The Proscribed Royalist" was approved, and shortly afterwards the picture was painted, and passed into the possession of Mr. Pocock. Mr. G. D. Leslie, R.A., tells me that at this date Millais sat to his father for the head of Lord Petre, in a picture of " The Rape of the Lock." " My father," he said, " painted Sir John on a small panel, just as he was, in a black frock coat, and a black cravat, with a little golden goose for a pin. The portrait was a very good likeness of him at that time, and was sold at the sale of my father's pictures in I860. I don't know who purchased it." "The Rape of the Lock" was bought by the late John Gibbons, of Hanover Terrace, who had a fine collection of pictures, and it is now in the possession of his son. To Mrs. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, "J lne 9/h, 1852. "MY DEAR MRS. COMBE, - With this I send you the lace which you were kind enough to procure for me. [It was used in 'The Huguenot,' and afterwards in 'The Proscribed Royalist.'] In returning it to the lady, I hope you will express my acknowledgments for her great kindness. "I have a subject that I am mad to commence [' The Proscribed Royalist'], and yesterday took lodgings at a delightful little inn near a spot exactly suited for the i852] M "MILLAIS OAK" i65 background. I hope to begin painting on Tuesday morning, and intend working without coming to town at all till it is done. The village is so very far from any railway station that I have no chance of getting to London in rainy weather. My brother is going to live with me part of the time, so I shall not be entirely a hermit.... " The immense success I have met with this year has given me a new sensation of pleasure in painting. I have letters almost every day for one or other of the pictures, and only wish your guest was as lucky, that he might go off to the Holy Land as soon as possible with me. I shall never go by myself. When I get to my country residence, I will keep up a proper correspondence with both of you. Lately I have hated the sight of a pen, and have scarcely answered letters requiring an immediate reply.... I have been paying a long-standing visit at a relation's near Croydon, and have become acquainted with the clergyman of the adjoining parish - a Mr. Hamilton, rector of Beddington - one of the most delightful men I ever met. He is a great friend of Mr. Marriott and others whose names I have heard you mention. His church and village are quite beaux ideals... " Yours very sincerely, " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." This is the first letter in which Millais mentions " The Proscribed Royalist " and his intention to paint the subject. Having found a suitable background in a little wood near Hayes, in Kent, he commenced the picture in June, 1852, and from this date till the end of the year his home seems to have been alternately at Waddon, Gower Street, and the little " George Inn" at Bromley, kept by a Mr. Vidler. Most of this time seems to have been spent at the inn, which was within easy reach of the scene he had selected; near also to the big trees on Coney Hall Hill, where still stands the giant oak that he painted in the foreground of the picture, and is now known as the " Millais Oak." Touching this painting William Millais writes: -"An amusing incident occurred whilst we were at the 'George Inn,' Bromley, my brother being engaged on the background for 'The Proscribed Royalist' in the old oak wood, and I (close by) on a large oil landscape. " Old Mr. Vidler, the landlord, was very proud of his i66 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i852 signboard, representing St. George killing the Dragon, and was mortally offended at our turning it into ridicule. One day during our stay a violent storm carried the signboard off its hinges and smashed it to bits. The owner was only partly consoled on our offering to paint him a new one, and added ungraciously, 'tBut there, now, it will never be the same thin g.' "However he thought imdifferently when he saw the w e we gorgeous thing lwe produced. here.-~I My brother painted one side and I the other. Many people atu this teei came to picnic in the neighboury hood, and it soon got ~ abroad that the new signboard was painted by a great artist. The old innkeeper was flattered by the THE "MILLAIS OAK," HAYES, KENT. 1898 numbers who came to see it, and made a practice of taking the sign in at night and in rough weather." To 1Mrs. Hodgkinson. "GEORGE INN, HAYES, NEAR BROMLEY, "Tuesday NzgA,,June, 1852. "MY DEAR EMILY, - According to promise, I give you immediate information about our arrival. Upon arriving at Croydon we first drove to your mansion at Waddon, where we took in the remaining luggage and trotted on here. We ordered a repast, and in the interim of preparation walked to the oak trees and down to the farm, where I again encountered Mrs. Rutley, and expounded my views to her upon the necessity of having cover close at hand for my paintings, and how her farm exactly suited me for that purpose. She very graciously undertook to afford shelter for my box or myself in case of rain, storm, etc., and after the colloquy was ended I joined Will (who was 1852] CORRESPONDENCE I67 too timid to make a request to a stranger) and walked on here home, where we found the tea waiting us. "The clock of the church which adjoins our premises has just struck eleven, and signals me to bed. Another bell within me foretells an animal considerably larger than the nightmare visiting me-perhaps an evening mammoth. I am writing this by the light of composition candles, supposed not to require snuffing. The wick of one hangs gracefully over like a hairpin, and the other has an astonishing resemblance to a juvenile cedar-tree, the latter prognosticating I believe the reception of letters, which will be particularly acceptable in the gloominess of our present retreat, more especially // - -from our blessed little coz, E. P. H. " Our landlady (Mrs. Vidler) has just e / called into action a spark of animation from the heir apparent of Gower Street. She broke in upon us to wish us a very good-night, and is gone with Vidler into the innermost recesses of the con- /S jugal boudoir, probably to dilate upon \ \ the magnitude of our appetites. " Yesterday I harpooned a most extensive whale [a patron] off the coast,of Portland Place, having no less than ten footmen in attendance at dinner. TOURISTS AT THE INN. 1853 The leviathan made most honourable overtures for an increase of acquaintance with the limner sprat [himself], who conducted himself with appropriate,condescension and becoming self-denial, in defiance of the strawberries and cream. Somehow or other, I believe my evil spirit takes his residence more particularly in that all-surpassing luxury, cream. It was my ruin at Worcester Park, and directly I came here it invitingly stands within my reach. I wish I had courage enough to dash away that beverage, as Macbeth throws the goblet from him on the appearance of Banquo. " During the journey to this place we diverted ourselves with the cup and ball, catching it upon the point during the progress of cab, train, and Croydon fly. William is snoring so loudly that you must excuse my writing more at present. I am sure he would send affectionate greetings.to you had he recovered from his lethargy. I68 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1852 "Now to bed, to bed. 'Out d d spot!' (a blot of ink on my finger). "Affectionately your coz, "JACK. "P.S.-Wednesday morning. I have had a bad night's rest. Awoke by the maid at six, up at nine; breakfast off eggs and bacon. Very stormy aspect in the weather, the glass falling to much rain. If it comes, you will probably hear of all those magnificent oaks on Coney Hall Hill slipping down into the road, burying therein the most celebrated of artists! The landlady, unnaturally bland for a female, has already exhibited signs of maternal affection for William.... The rain has commenced in torrents, so no painting to-day; we must put up with profound meditations and cup and ball. The wind is so,high that all the trees look as if they were making backs for a game of leap-frog." To the same. "GEORGE INN, HAYES, BROMLEY, KENT, I Wednesday Afternoon, June, 1852. "MY DEAR EMILY, - I am come in from an attempt to paint, but the weather is too cold and unsettled for any Christian to be out in, so I mean to console myself as best I may with writing this, and afterwards reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, which is certainly interesting.. "Lynn has made me a regular artist's shooting-stool, shutting up and portable. The sun is positively shining, now that it is too late to begin again. Do you know I shall not recover in a hurry from those two insults-' Ten-ston'six,' and being taken for the newspaper stall-keeper! That comes of assisting a lady to cut books. The governor has sent me a Liverpool paper with a long criticism on my picture, 'The Hug-or-not.'.. " Next Sunday I am going to spend at A. Mrs. Doyle has desired her husband * to bring me forcibly. I had such a capital letter from him, with an illustration of your convicted servant painting out-of-doors, and a bull looking over a hedge with a significant expression, foreboding his intention of elevating me to the height of my profession... * Richard Doyle, the famous caricaturist. 1852] CORRESPONDENCE I69 "Take my advice, don't go out at Hastings with that new parasol, otherwise you will come back with it like this - [Here follows a sketch of Mrs. Hodgkinson being blown off a cliff out to sea, still clinging to the new parasol.] "I remain, your affectionate " J. E. MILLAIS." A reminiscence of this period will be found in the following note, kindly sent to me by Mrs. Pitt:" Perhaps you may like to know the following story in connection with your father's life. When he was painting the picture' A Proscribed Royalist,' near Hayes Common, I was paying a visit to my mother, and was walking with my sisters one day, when we stopped for a minute behind an artist to look at his picture. "'How beautiful it is,' I.. said, half to myself, and how j much our mother would like to see it.' "We had not the slightest i notion who the artist was, but he courteously turned round to us, and said "'If your mother lives near enough, I shall be pleased to take the picture and show it to her.' SKETCH FOR THE ORDER OF RELEASE." "We thanked him, and invited him to luncheon. He came, and our mother - a real lover of Art —of course admired the picture immensely, though we never knew who the artist was until the picture became public. <" It might have been a year or two afterwards that I was much struck with 'The Huguenot,' and when visiting my husband's brother-in-law (Mr. Miller) at Preston, I discussed it with him. At that time he deprecated what was termed the Pre-Raphaelite style; nevertheless, he went and bought it." Millais had been working steadily for more than a month 17o JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1852 at Hayes, and was getting on well, when, to his great chagrin, he was called away from his work to attend at Oxford as witness in a lawsuit with regard to the will of Mr. Drury, of Shotover, the testator's sanity at the date of the will being questioned, and he being one of the attesting witnesses. He happened to be with Mr. Drury in I849, when the will was made, and, having spent two or three months under his roof, he could speak with the..........;.j~iapp^ Xutmost confidence as to the state of his mind..Millais' evidence, Mr. 'Yestd Justice Williams, before a t. we..i whom the case was tried, h complimented him in the following terms:..i u Wrell, Mr. Millais, i I~ if you can paint as well as you can give your evidence, you will be - -a very successful man some day." In the end S............. FR the validity of the will was established. Poor.Mrs......To aMrs. Hodgkimeson.."Auzgust 4/i, 1852. "MY DEAR COZ,- We ~ have just concluded our SKETCH FOR 'THE ORDER OF RELEASE," 1852S customary game of skittles, and I hasten, with a shaky hand, to fulfil my promise of writing you a letter. To-day we were both obliged to leave off painting early, as every two minutes a shower of rain came down, so since one o'clock we have had strong exercise in archery and the knock-'em-downs. Yesterday we also took a holiday, as it was wet; so we are not getting on precisely as we could wish... "Poor Mrs. Vidler has been bedridden for some time, owing, I am told, to an encounter with some drunken fellow who insulted her. They say she doubled her mawleys in the I852] CORRESPONDENCE I7I true pugilistic style, and knocked over the inebriate vagabond, to his infinite astonishment and discomfort, so injuring his leg in the fall that he has since been at the hospital.... " I wish I was in a vein for describing a club feast that came off here a day or two ago. Upwards of eighty agricultural labourers sat down to table, the stewards wearing blue and white rosettes in their buttonholes. Of course almost all of them were drunk in the evening, and some of the drollest scenes took place outside the house. About one a.m. a fight was raging, which kept me awake for some time; and last night I never slept till four in the morning- I suppose from having drunk some rather strong tea at the Hasseys' — so to-day I feel sleepy and stupid. "The Royal Academy conversazione I attended alone, William being upset with rheumatics. The first people I met were, of course, the Leslies, with whom I kept the greater part of the evening. The Duke of Wellington made his appearance about ten, and walked through the rooms with the President, Sir Charles Eastlake. All went off as those and most things do. I saw Mrs. Leslie (not Miss) down to her carriage, and walked home with Hunt. " With a gentle smoothing down of George's ambrosian locks, believe me, "Most sincerely yours, " JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To Mr. Combe. " GEORGE INN, HAYES, BROMLEY, "Tuesday Night, October, I852. "MY DEAR COMBE, - Do not be astonished, or imagine me forgetful, in allowing so long a time to elapse without writing. "I have but just returned to this place, after spending a week (bedridden) at Gower Street, where I went to be nursed in a tremendous rheumatic cold I caught painting out of doors. I am well again now, and worked away today as usual at my background, which I hope to finish in two or three days at most, when I shall return to Town for good.... I am waiting here for one more sunny day, to give a finishing touch to the trunk of a tree which is in broad sunlight. Both yesterday and to-day I have suffered from headache, without in the least knowing the cause. I have t72 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I852 taken medicine enough to supply a parish, and am particularly careful in my diet, drinking nothing but water- not even tea. "This year I am going to paint a small picture of a single figure, the subject of which you will like; and you shall, if you like, have the first refusal of it. The one I am now about is the property of Mr. Pocock, and the other (of the same size) is for Mr. Wilkinson, M.P. for Lambeth, or Mr. Ellison, the gentleman who purchased 'Ferdinand.' You recollect seeing it at Oxford. It is quite a 'lark ' now to see the amiable letters I have from Liverpool and Birmingham merchants, requesting me to paint them pictures, any size, subject, and amount i like- leaving it all to me. I am not likely to let them have anything, as they would probably hawk it about until they obtained their profit. " I hear from Mrs. Collins that they may, perhaps, spend some part of the autumn at Hanover Terrace. I hope it will be so, as I would arrange for a tour together in the spring if all goes right- to Switzerland or Spain. Next year I hope to paint the 'Deluge,' which will not require any outof-door painting, so I should be at liberty to take a holiday abroad. Write and let me know what you think of this; it is a project I really intend. Remember me most affectionately to Mrs. Pat, to whom I shall write in a day or two. " Most sincerely yours, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." " The Proscribed Royalist " is one of the pictures referred to in the above letter, and this being the last mention of it in the correspondence, it may be well to introduce here the subsequent history of this painting. The background was not completed until November; and to get the effect of sunshine on the brilliant satin petticoat of the female figure, Millais took the dress down to Hayes with him and rigged it up on the lay figure. The actual figure and face of the woman were finally taken from the beautiful Miss Ryan, the model for "The Huguenot," and when that portion of the work was finished he commenced (in March) to paint the cavalier hidden in the trees. For this figure his friend Mr. Arthur Hughes (himself virtually one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers) sat, and to him I am indebted for the following interesting note: - "I was in the Royal Academy Library," he says, "one evening, looking at books of etchings, and had some by "THE ROYALIST." 1853 By permission of H. Graves and Son 1852] REMINISCENCES I75 Tiepolo before me, when Millais came in and sat down beside me. Having asked for McIan's 'Highland Clans' (presumably for the' Order of Release'), in his leisure he looked at the Tiepolos and criticised them at once as 'florid, artificial. I hate that kind of thing.' Then he asked me to sit to him for a head in his picture, 'The Proscribed Royalist.' I went, and sat five or six times. He painted me in a small back-room on the second floor of the Gower Street house, using it instead of the regular studio on the ground floor because he could get sunshine there to fall HEAD OF A GIRL. GLENFINLASS, I853 on his lay figure attired as the Puritan Girl. In the studio below he had taken the picture out of a wooden case with the lid sliding in grooves - to keep all dust from it, he said - and after my sitting he used to slip it in again. When I saw the picture I ventured to remark that I thought the dress of the lady was quite strong enough in colour; but he said it was the fault of the sun; that the dress itself was rather Quakery, but the sunshine on it made it like gold. His studio was exquisitely tidy. I had been admitted by a very curly-headed Buttons (' Mr. Pritchard, my butler,' as Millais used to call him), who received at the same time a tremen 176 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i852 dous wigging for some slight debris left on the floor. After he had retired, Millais made it up to him by declaring he would undertake to make that boy paint better than a Royal Academician in a twelvemonth! Apart from my admiration of Millais, it was a very interesting episode to me, from the revelation of character in the few inhabitants of the house, and the way he ruled all, and all was ruled for him. The gentleness of the father and the vigorous character of the mother, the picturesque but somewhat restless individuality of William Millais, were all interesting. Commissions were j, S2 / 1...J then beginning to pour in upon John, and in less degree on William, whose forte was water-colour landscapes, exquisitely drawn. " The latter came in one day, saying, ' I don't care, I 'm all right for a year.' ' And your brother for twenty,' said his mother- a little sharply, I thought. "William used to work in the front room, while John painted me in the back one. There was but a thin wall between the two, and we could hear William all the time, as he was very restless, singing by snatches, whistling, calling to John to know the time repeatedly, coaxingly, then imploringly, noisily, but getting no reply, John working hard and serious as grim death the while. But at last his patience I852] REMINISCENCES 177 gave out and he stopped work, and for the space of a minute he levelled such language at William as up to that time I had not heard used by one brother to another. But he did not tell him the time! "During,the sittings we talked once of the objection (among many others) the critics made to the amount of detail the Pre-Raphaelites gave in their pictures, and Millais said, 'If you do not begin by doing too much you will end by doing too little; if you want to stop a ball which has been thrown along the ground you must get a little beyond it.'" r I Opton, having been successively in the possession of Mr. Pocock, Mr. Plint, and Sir John Pender. The headaches of which Millais complained in several of his letters are not, I believe, uncommon among men of his craft, long confinement in the studio unfitting them for work in the open, where they must perforce sit still for hours together, exposed to every wind that blows. In early life my father suffered a good deal in this way; and it was not until his frie nds, John Leech and "Mike" Halliday, persuaded him to follow the hounds that he found relief from this complan int. I his next two letters he writes enthusiastically on the sport, as a source of health and strength. I -12 178 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I852 To Mr. Georg-e Wyatt. "83 GOWER STREET, " I852. "MY DEAR WYATT, - Many thanks for your kind attention to my wishes. The fleet must have been a wonderful sight. I was very nearly going with Leech, the Punch draughtsman, to see its departure, but found even greater attraction in hunting, which I have lately taken to. Every Saturday I accompany him into Hertfordshire, where good horses await us, and we stay overnight at a friend's, and set off in the morning. I have been four times out, and have only had one spill, which did not hurt me in the least. " I should not follow the chase but that I enjoy it above all other recreation, and find myself quite fitted for such exercise. The first time I ever rode over a fence gave me confidence from the comparatively easy way in which I kept my seat. Since then I have ridden over pretty nearly every kind of hedge and ditch. Leech is a good rider, and we go together. "With kind regards from my family, believe me, "Yours very truly, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." To Mr. Combe. "83 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, "Saturday, October 23rd, 852. "MY DEAR MR. COMBE, -I cannot promise to pay you a visit, as I am now going to look for another background, which I must immediately commence. "I returned the day before yesterday with my picture finished, all but the figures. To-day I am going to' the Tower of London, to look after a gateway or prison door [for 'The Order of Release']. I am undecided between two subjects, one of which requires the above locality, and the other the interior of a church. [The artist's first idea of the background for ' L'Enfant du Regiment,' painted in i855.] "With regard to our proposed journey, I shall be ready, directly after my pictures are sent to the Royal Academy,, to go with you to Norway or the North Pole. I look I852] CORRESPONDENCE I79 forward to this travelling-trip, as I have had so little recreation within these last four years, and I hope you will pay the Collins's a visit this autumn, as we could then discuss the merits of the different countries. I have a curious partiality for Spain, from reading Don Quixote and Gil Bias; but, as you say, the distance is an obstacle. I know nothing about Norway, but I hope it is not colder in the summer than here. "Do you intend coming to town to see the funeral of IMITATIONS OF VELASQUEZ. 1853 the Duke? I do not generally care about such things, but I shall make a little struggle for that. It will be worth seeing. "Have you seen anything of Pollen* lately, and has Jenkins gone yet? Last Thursday evening I met Tennyson and his brother Charles, a clergyman. Politics were the principal topic of conversation, the Laureate believing it Louis Napoleon's secret intention to make war with and invade England. In this Tennyson thinks he would be * Mr. Pollen, a fellow of Merton College, and an authority on Art matters, was a frequent visitor to the Combes, and met there Millais and Hunt, whose works he admired. /-N T, T T% T " I-T ''- 11- ' 'r 7TT' T 1', TNr I o JUJl-iN iV L.KLI 1 IVlLLAIb [1852 successful, holding us in subjection for some little time, when he would be kicked over to fair France to resist the attack of almost all Europe. I can see you smiling at this like a true Britisher. "Ever yours most truly, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS." "The Order of Release "(referred to for the first time in the foregoing letter) is well described by Mr. Walter Armstrong, who begins by quoting Mr. Andrew Lang in the following notice — "' In 1853 Millais painted a picture in which both his dramatic power and his eye for the lovable in woman are superbly shown, and shown under some difficulties. This is "The Order of Release," now the property of Mr. James Renton. It was originally painted for Mr. Joseph Arden, who gave the commission for it through Thackeray. As a piece of realistic painting, it may challenge comparison with anything else in the world. The scene takes place not outside a prison, as more than once has been absurdly supposed, but in a bare waitingroom, into which the young clansman has been ushered to his wife, while his gaoler takes "The Order of Release," which will have to be verified by his superior before it can result in final liberty. The stamp of actual truth is on it; and if ever such an event happened, if ever a Highlander's wife brought a pardon for her husband to a reluctant turnkey, things must have occurred thus. The work is saved by expression and colour from the realism of a photograph. The woman's shrewd, triumphant air is wonderfully caught, though the face of the pardoned man is concealed, like that of Agamemnon in the Greek picture, but by a subtle artifice. The colour of the plaid and the gaoler's scarlet jacket reinforce each other, but do not obliterate the black-and-tan of the collie. The good dog seems actually alive. The child in the woman's arms is uncompromisingly " Hieland." The flesh painting, as of the child's bare legs, is wonderfully real; the man's legs are less tanned than usually are those of the wearers of the kilt. Perhaps he is grown pale in prison, as a clansman might do whose head seemed likely soon to be set on Carlisle wall. As a matter of truthful detail, observe the keys in the gaoler's hand, the clear steel shining through a touch of rust. The subject and the "THE ORDER OF RELEASE." I853 By permzssion of H. Graves and Son 1852] PASSION FOR ACCURACY I83 sentiment, no less than the treatment, made this picture a complete success.' " Every word of this may be endorsed, but Mr. Lang has hardly, I think, laid sufficient stress on the mastery of expression in the woman's face. In it we can see the subtlest mingling of emotions ever achieved by the artist. There is not only shrewdness and triumph, there is love for the husband, contempt mixed with fear for the power symbolised by the turnkey's scarlet, pride in her own achievement, I 4 i 0 * S eI where the child had been laid out of further danger; the tears - of pain have ceased to trickle Ber r — O J.'Zv'i down its face, and its sobbings '- Xs. a: have found rest in sleep. The E m '4 tomb is of alabaster, mostly /6f pure white, but dashed and streaked with pearly fawn and grey tints, according to the nature of the material, which acquires from time an inner tint of saffron and pale gold. The tale of 'The Random Shot' is explained by showing some soldiers firing out of a window of the church." The tomb on which the child is lying is that of Gervaise Allard, knight, one of the many beautiful works of art still to be seen in the old church at Icklesham. Dante Rossetti was probably right in saying that the artist's first idea was to depict the scene as taking place in a church besieged by Cromwell, for several of the sketches in my possession suggest more forcible and warlike movement than is to be found in the picture itself. The child, too, was originally 240 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I854 painted in several attitudes before that of repose was selected. "The Blind Girl," a still more pathetic subject, is described by Spielmann as " the most luminous with bright golden light of all Millais' works, and for that reason the more deeply pathetic in relation to the subject. Madox Brown was right when he called it a 'religious picture, and a glorious one,' for God's bow is in the sky, doubly - a sign of Divine promise specially significant to the blind. Rossetti called it 'one of the most touching and perfect things I know,' and the Liverpool Academy endorsed his opinion by awarding to it their annual prize, although the public generally favoured Abraham Solomon's 'Waiting for the V\ Verdict.' Sunlight seems to ' I^ \ '"' issue from the picture, and 'i bathes the blind girl -blind alike to its glow, to the beauties of the symbolic butterfly that I CJ\ has settled upon her, and to J \ \ the token in the sky. The g main rainbow is doubtless too, strong and solid. Millais himc'' self told the story of how, not (,c-, T >.-. r7' o knowing that the second rain-, -; Ad rt o^ bow is not really a 'double' t one, but only a reflection of the rfii: a '- ' first, he did not reverse the order of its colours as he should have done, and how, when it was pointed out to him, he put the matter right, and was duly feed for so doing. But the error is a common one. I have seen it in pictures by Troyon and others, students of Nature all their lives, who yet had never accurately observed. The precision of handling is as remarkable as ever, and the surrounding collection of birds and beasts evinces extraordinary draughtsmanship." In I898, when the picture was seen again in the midst of Millais' other Pre-Raphaelite works, nearly all the critics agreed that, for a general balance of qualities, it should take the first place in the collection; the Spectator remarking that: "Nowhere else in the whole range of his works did the painter produce such a beautiful piece of landscape. The picture is full of truth and full of beauty, and the grass glows ....................... I854] "THE BLIND GIRL" 241 and sparkles in the sunlight after the storm. The colour throughout is as brilliant as paint can make it, but perfectly harmonious at the same time. Of quite equal beauty are the two figures, the blind musician and her child companion, and the pathos is so admirably kept in its proper place that it is really touching. There is a true humanity about this picture as well as great artistic qualities." But best of all is Mr. Ruskin's refined and accurate description of the picture. He says: - " The background is an open English common, skirted by the tidy houses of a well-to-do village in the cockney rural districts. I have no doubt the scene is a real one within some twenty miles from London, - iand 7_. Hi *w,, 4f m su4 i04 and painted mostly on the spot. A pretty little church has its window-traceries freshly whitewashed by order of the careful warden. The common is a fairly spacious bit of ragged pasture, and at the side of the public road passing over it the blind girl has sat down to rest awhile. She is a simple beggar, not a poetical or vicious one - a girl of eighteen or twenty, extremely plain-featured, but healthy, and just now resting, not because she is much tired, but because the sun has but this moment come out after a shower, and the smell of the grass is pleasant. The shower has been heavy, and is so still in the distance, where an intensely bright double rainbow is relieved against the departing thunder-cloud. The freshly wet grass is all radiant through and through with the new sunshine; the weeds at the girl's side as bright as a I- 16 242 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i854 Byzantine enamel, and inlaid with blue veronica; her upturned face all aglow with the light which seeks its way through her wet eyelashes. Very quiet she is, so quiet that a radiant butterfly has settled on her shoulder, and basks there in the warm sun. Against her knee, on which her poor instrument of beggary rests, leans another child, half her age -her guide. Indifferent this one to sun or rain, only a little tired of waiting." Neither the background nor the figures in this work were finished at Icklesham, the middle distance being, I think, painted in a hayfield near the railway bridge at Barnhill, just outside of Perth. Perth, too, supplied the models from NA h# 44ew I- Nell ie~gz^w/> H' ^f~t 6^sg he~ ^ t a^^ u^Si a,,- Y / "We went home much impressed with what we had seen, and my brother said,' Soldiers and sailors have been praised on canvas a thousand times. My next picture shall be of the fireman.'" Mr. Arthur Hughes is also good enough to send me a note on the subject. He says:-"One day in I855, the moment I saw him [Millais], he began to describe the next subject he proposed to paint-'to honour a set of men quietly doing a noble work - firemen'; and he poured out, and painted in words of vividness and reality, the scene he put on canvas later. I never see it or think of it without seeing also the picture of himself glorified with enthusiasm as he was describing it." It was at a dinner party at the Collins's on January 29th, 1855, that Millais and Charles Dickens met (I think) for the first time. After dinner they talked till a late hour on pictures, and particularly on the subject of " The Rescue," LETTERS FROM DICKENS 249 on which Millais was then engaged. Dickens, it will be remembered, objected strongly to Millais' treatment of "Christ in the House of His Parents," and had made no attempt to disguise his feeling in speaking of the picture in Good Words. He refers to this in the following letter to Millais: From Charles Dickens. "TAVISTOCK HOUSE, "Tuesday, January I3th, I855. "MY DEAR SIR, -I send you the account of the fire brigade, which we spoke of last night. " If you have in your mind any previous association with the pages in which it appears (very likely you have none) it may be a rather disagreeable one. In that case I hope a word frankly said may make it pleasanter. "Objecting very strongly to what I believe to be an unworthy use of your great powers, I once expressed the objection in this same journal. My opinion on that point is not in the least changed, but it has never dashed my admiration of your progress in what I suppose are higher and better things. In short, you have given me such great reasons (in your works) to separate you from uncongenial associations, that I wish to give you in return one little reason for doing the like by me. And hence this note. "Faithfully yours, " CHARLES DICKENS." When "The Rescue" was nearly completed, Millais wrote and asked Dickens to come and see how the work had progressed, and received the following reply:" TAVISTOCK HOUSE, " April oth, I855. "MY DEAR MR. MILLAIS, - I am very sorry that I cannot have the great pleasure of seeing your picture to-day, as I am obliged to go a little way out of town. "I asked Wilkie Collins to let you know that there is a curious appositeness in some lines in Gay's Trivia. You will find them overleaf here, to the number of four. The whole passage about a fire and firemen is some four-andtwenty lines long. Very faithfully yours, " CHARLES DICKENS." 250 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I855 Mr. F. B. Barwell, a friend of the artist, has kindly furnished me with the following notes on the subject of " The Rescue ": - " This picture was produced in my studio, and presents many interesting facts within my own knowledge. After several rough pencil sketches had been made, and the composition determined upon, a full-sized cartoon was drawn from nature. Baker, a stalwart model, was the fireman, and he had to hold three children in the proper attitudes and bear their weight as long as he could, whilst the children were encouraged and constrained to do their part to their utmost. The strain could never be kept up for long, and the acrobatic feat had to be repeated over and over again for more than one sitting, till Millais had secured the action and proportion of the various figures. When sufficiently satisfied with the cartoon, it was traced on to a perfectly white canvas, and the painting commenced. It was now no longer necessary to have the whole group posed at one time; but Baker had to repeat his task more or less all through. The effect of the glare was managed by the interposition of a sheet of coloured glass of proper hue between the group (or part of it at a time) and the window. The processes employed in painting were most careful, and indeed slow, so that what Millais would have done in his later years in a week, took months in those-earlier days. It was his practice then to paint piecemeal, and finish parts "THE RESCUE" 25 of his pictures as he went on. White, mixed with copal, was generally laid on where he intended to work for the day, and was painted into and finished whilst wet, the whole drying together. The night-dresses of the children were executed in this manner. Strontian yellow was mixed with the white, and then rose-madder mingled with copal, floated, as it were, over the solid but wet paint - a difficult process, and so ticklish that as soon as a part was finished the canvas had to be laid on its back till the colour had dried sufficiently to render the usual position on the easel a safe one. " By degrees the work was finished, but not till near midnight of the last day for sending into the Royal Academy. 214 -^^,j C*A4/~Wt fle ~^ 3yt f-S -,?c) c/Ya r J^tiSt \ e:, '^ '^-^ No r %-r In those days Millais was generally behindhand with his principal picture, and so much so with this one, that he greatly curtailed his sleep during the last week; and on the last day but one began to work as soon as it was daylight, and worked on all through the night and following day till the van arrived for the picture. (Mr. Ruskin defended the appearance of haste, which to him seemed to betray itself in the execution of this picture, contending that it was well suited to the excitement and action of the subject.) His friend Charles Collins sat up with him and painted the fire-hose, whilst Millais worked at other parts; and in the end a large piece of sheet-iron was placed on the floor, upon which a flaming brand was put and worked from, amidst suffocating smoke. For the head of the mother,/ Mrs. Nassau Senior, sister of Judge Hughes of Tom Brown fame, was good enough to sit. 252 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS " The methods here described were gradually abandoned as Millais progressed in his career." On the whole, this picture met with a fair degree of approbation, but, as Mr. Spielmann says, "its artificiality, and still more the chromatic untruth, were savagely attacked. It was pointed out that the flames of burning wood emit yellow and green rays in abundance. Blazing timber, even incandescent bricks, would not cast such a colour, except in a modified tint upon the clouds above; that a fire such as this throws an orange light at most, and that therefore the children's night-dresses should have been yellow, with grey in the shadows, and the fireman's green cloth uniform yellowgrey. The latter part of the contention Ruskin demolished, for nearly-black is always quite-black in full juxtaposition with violet colour. But he could not meet the argument that, to accept as true the ruddy glow, one must agree that it is a houseful of Bengal-fire and nitrate of strontian that is alight. Seen by artificial light, the picture almost succeeds in concealing this error of fact." The following interesting note on " The Rescue" is taken fromn the Table Talk of SAhirley, as quoted in Good Words of October, 1894:- " I knew Thomas Spencer Baynes intimately for nearly forty years. For ten years thereafter Baynes was my constant correspondent. From London he wrote to me as follows on May 25th, 1855:-'I went in for half an hour to the Royal Academy yesterday, i855] HANGING COMMITTEE'S INSULT 25 3 but as I was almost too tired to stand, and did not stay any time, I shall say nothing about it, only this, that the face and form of that woman on the stairs of the burning house [" The Rescue "] are, if not, as I am disposed to think, beyond all, quite equal to the best that Millais has ever done, not forgetting the look of unutterable love and life's deep yearning in " The Huguenot." And those children! Ah me! I can hardly bear to think of it; yet the agony is too near, too intense, too awful, for present rejoicing even at the deliverance. And that smile on the young mother's face has struggled up from such depths of speechless pain, and expresses such a sudden ecstasy of utter gratitude and over-.-f I the /: c 54-& O4 4 ' 1 P, I have ever met.'" Millais himself knew this to be his best work. When, therefore, he went to the Academy on varnishing-day, 1855, and found that it had been deliberately skied, his indignation knew no bounds. He told the Hanging Committee to their faces what he thought of this insult, and of them as the authors of it. But perhaps that scene is best described in the words of Dante Rossetti, who, writing to his friend W. Allingham, said: " How is Millais' design [' The Fireside Story'], which I have not yet seen? I hope it is only as good as his picture at the Royal Academy-the most wonderful thing he has done, except, perhaps, 'The Huguenot.' 254 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i855 He had an awful row with the Hanging Committee, who had put it above the level of the eye; but J. E. Millais yelled for several hours, and threatened to resign till they put it right." Mention is also made of this incident in the L zfe of W. B. Scott, to whom Woolner, writing in May, I855, said: — " The Academy Committee hung Millais- even Millais, their crack student-in a bad place, he being too attractive now; but that celebrity made such an uproar, the old fellows were glad to give him a better place." Millais' amusement, when Woolner wrote, was to go about and rehearse the scene that took place at the Academy between him and the ancient magnates. Seddon also wrote on May 3rd, I855: -"The Academy opens on Monday. The hangers were of the old school, and they have kicked out everything tainted with Pre-Raphaelitism. My 'Pyramids' and a head in chalk of Hunt's, and all our friends, are stuck out of sight or rejected. Millais' picture was put where it could not be seen.... He carried his point by threatening to take away his picture and resign at once unless they rehung him, which they did. He told them his mind very freely, and said they were jealous of all rising men, and turned out or hung their pictures where they could not be seen." The latest note on the picture appeared in the Daily News of January ist, 1898, in which it is said:- "' The Rescue'has a vigour and a courage that rivets attention. The immortal element (as Ruskin said at the time) is in it to the full. It was studied from the very life. Millais and a trusty friend of those early days hurried off one night to where a great fire was raging, plunged into the thick of the scene, and saw the effects which his memory could retain and his hand record. What a grappling it is with a difficulty which no other painter had so treated before. It is a situation which is dramatic; the rest is Nature. In the pose of the mother, as she reaches out those long arms of hers, straight and rigid and parallel, there is an intensity of expression that recalls his PreRaphaelite days. The figure of the child escaping towards her from the fireman's grasp shows what mastery of his art he had gained in the interval." The secret of this " mastery" is that Millais always went to life and Nature for his inspiration. Touching this particular picture, I heard him say that before he commenced the work he went to several big fires in London to study the ST. AGNES. I854 I8551 "THE FIRESIDE STORY" 257 true light effects. The captain of the fire brigade was a friend of his, and one evening, when Millais and Mike Halliday were dining with him, he said, after several alarms had been communicated, "Now, Millais, if you want to see a first-class blaze, come along." Rushing downstairs, the guests were speedily habited in firemen's overalls and helmets, and, jumping into a cab, were soon on the scene of action. Years afterwards Millais was dining one night with Captain Shaw, the then chief of the brigade, and renewed his experience at a big fire; but this time he travelled on one of the engines - a position which he found much less to his taste than the inside of a cab. "The Fireside Story," to which Rossetti alludes, was intended to illustrate the following stanza of " Frost in the Highlands," in the second series of Day and Night Songs, by William Allingham: "At home are we by the merry fire, Ranged in a ring to our heart's desire. And who is to tell some wondrous tale, Almost to turn the warm cheeks pale, Set chin on hands, make grave eyes stare, Draw slowly nearer each stool and chair?" Of this drawing the Atheneum of August I8th, 1855, wrote:- "' The Fireside Story,' by the last-named gentleman [Millais], is a proof that he can be in earnest without being absurd, and reproduce Nature without administering on the occasion a dose of ugliness as a tonic "- a piece of criticism which called forth the following from D. G. Rossetti in one of his letters to W. Allingham: - " That is a stupid enough notice in the Athenceum in all conscience. I wonder who did it? Some fearful ass evidently, from the way he speaks of Millais as well as of you." William Allingham also refers to this drawing in a letter to Millais of November Ioth, 1855, concluding with the following words: -" As I am not good at praising people to their faces, and as it is a comfort, too, to express something of what one feels, pray let me assure you here of the deep respect I have for your powers. The originality and truthfulness of your genius fill me with delight and wonder. I wish you would master the art of etching, and make public half a dozen designs now and again. Surely one picture in a year, shown in London and then shut up, is not result I- 17 258 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS enough for such a mine of invention and miraculous power of reproduction as you possess. This is the age of printing and a countless public, and the pictorial artist may and ought to aim at exercising a wider immediate influence. Be our better Hogarth. Don't leave us remote and wretched to the Illustrated London News and the Art Journal."* Acting on this advice, Millais set to work and studied REJECTED. 1853 etching. By my mother's account-book I see he did etchings on copper, though what has become of them I do not know. The year after its exhibition in London " The Rescue " was sent to the Liverpool Academy, where it is said to have lost the annual prize by a single vote. Thackeray, who was now a great admirer of Millais' works, was quite fascinated with it, and it was due to his recommendation that the picture passed into the hands of Mr. Arden. Some years afterwards, * The wood-cutting of this period was so bad that even the best examples which appeared in these journals were far from satisfactory. i855] FREDERICK LEIGHTON 259 when it was put up for auction at the Arden sale, at Christie's rooms, it was noticed that the canvas was covered with spots, due to its having been kept in an uncongenial temperature. The artist saw this, and offered to put things right; but, strange to say, the executors declined the offer, and it was sold, spots and all. The spots remained on the canvas for many years, and after seeing the picture in the Glasgow Exhibition in 1887, I spoke to my father about it, and, with the consent of the owners, he had it back in his studio and successfully removed the blemish. It was in this year (1855) that Leighton (afterwards an intimate friend of Millais) made his first appearance in the Academy with an important work-a big picture of "Cimabue," which was bought by her majesty the Queen. Millais referred to him in the following words at the Academy banquet on May 6th, I895: - " In the early part of the evening I spoke of my first meeting with Fred. Leighton. Let me tell you where and from whom I first heard of him. It was in the smoking-room of the old Garrick Club, and the man who first mentioned the name to me was William Makepeace Thackeray. He had just returned from travelling abroad, and, amongst other places, had visited Italy. When he saw me enter the room he came straight up to me, and addressed me in these memorable words:-' Millais, my boy, you must look to your laurels. I have met a wonderfully gifted young artist in Rome, about your own age, who some day will be the President of the Royal Academy before you.' How that prophecy has come to pass is now an old, old story. We are, as we may well be, proud of our dear President, our admirable Leighton- painter, sculptor, orator, linguist, musician, soldier, and, above all, a dear good fellow. That he may long continue to be our chief is not only the fervent prayer of the Academy; it is, unless I am much mistaken, the sincere and hearty wish of every member of the profession." His first meeting with the future President is also a matter of some interest. Speaking of this, he said: -"The first time I met Frederick Leighton was on the war-path. It was at a meeting of four or five of the original Artist Volunteers, held in my studio in Langham Place, and, if my memory serves me, it was to consider the advisability of adopting the grey cloth which the corps now wears." Then was cemented a life-long friendship between the 260 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1855 President of the day and the man who eventually succeeded him in his office. That the advent of Leighton was received with joy by the Royal Academicians will be seen by the following passage in one of D. G. Rossetti's letters in I855:-" There is a big picture of 'Cimabue,' one of the works in procession by a new man, living abroad, named Leighton -a huge thing, which the Queen has bought, and which everyone talks of. The Royal Academicians have been gasping for years for someone to back against Hunt and Millais, and here they have him - a fact which makes some people do the picture injustice in return." CHAPTER VII LEECH. THACKERAY, WILKIE COLLINS, AND ANTHONY TROLLOPE Millais' affection for Leech- His first top-boots - "Mr. Tom Noddy "-Millais introduces "Mr. Briggs" to the delight of salmon fishing-The Duke of Athol and Leech - Letters from Leech - The ghost of Cowdray Hall - Death of Leech - His funeral -- The pension for Leech's family - Letter from Charles Dickens - Thackeray - The littleness of earthly fame- Wilkie Collins - True origin of The Woman fin White - Anthony Trollope - Letters from him. I EECH, Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, and Anthony 1, Trollope: what memories these names conjure up! They were amongst the oldest and most intimate friends of Millais, and were so closely associated with him at various periods of his life that no biography of any of them would be complete without some record of the others. It may be interesting, then, to those who know them only by their works to recall here some of the many personal qualities that endeared them to all who enjoyed the privilege of their friendship. And first of Leech, the famous caricaturist of Pmnch. Here was a man of whom, if of anybody, one might say, " I shall not look upon his like again." " The truest gentleman I ever met," was what was said of him by those who knew him best-by such judges of men as Thackeray, Trollope, Frith, Du Maurier, Dean Hole, and others -and no words could better convey the sentiments of Millais himself. To speak of him after his death was always more or less painful to my father, though now and then, when sport was uppermost in his mind, he would talk enthusiastically of the happy days when they shot or rode together or rollicked about town as gay young bachelors bent on all the amusement they could find. Hear what Du Maurier says of him in Harper's Magazine: -" He was the most sympathetic and attractive person I ever met; not funny at all in conversation, or ever wishing 26i 262 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS to be, except now or then for a capital story, which he told to perfection. "The keynote of his character, socially, seemed to be self-effacement, high-bred courtesy, never-failing consideration for others. He was the most charming companion conceivable, having intimately known so many important and celebrated people, and liking to speak of them; but one would never have guessed from anything he ever looked or said that he had made a whole nation, male and female, gentle and simple, old and young, laugh as it had "P never laughed before or since, for U ~ a quarter of a century. p 1 81i " He was tall, thin, and graceful, extremely handsome, of the higher Irish type, with dark hair and whiskers and complexion, and very i light greyish-blue eyes; but the a, |i,i:;expression of his face was habitually sad, even when he smiled. In: X dress, bearing, manner, and aspect::*;:, he was the very type of the well[- bred English gentleman and man of the world and good society. S m Thackeray and Sir John MillaisI 3 I4 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i857 tramp, she told him to go away. "But," pleaded the stranger, with a merry twinkle in his eye, "I want 'The Knight Crossing the Ford,' and I must have it " The idea now dawned upon her that he was a harmless lunatic, to be got rid of by a little quiet persuasion. This, therefore, she tried, but in vain. The only reply she got was, "Oh, beautiful dragon! I am Charles Reade, who wrote Never Too Late to Mend, and I simply must have that picture, though I am but a poor man. I would write a whole three-volume novel on it, and then have sentiment enough to spare. I only wish I had someone like you to guard my house!" And he got the picture! For, though a stranger to my mother, my father knew him well, and was pleased to find on his return home that it had fallen into his hands. Reade was, in fact, an intimate friend of Millais, and when in town they met together almost daily at the Garrick Club. That he was proud of his purchase the following letter to Millais attests: From Charles Reade. "GARRICK CLUB. "IL MAESTRO, -The picture is come, and shall be hung in the drawing-room. I cannot pretend to point out exactly what you have done to it, but this I know- it looks admirably well. I hope you will call on me and talk it over. I am very proud to possess it. Either I am an idiot, or it is an immortal work. Yours sincerely, CHARLES READE." In another letter he says:-" It is the only picture admitted into the room, and has every justice I can tender it. As I have bought to keep, and have no sordid interest in crying it up, you must allow me to write it up a little. It is infamous that a great work of Art should be libelled as this was some time ago." In a letter to Millais, asking for a ticket for the " private view" day at the Academy, he says:- "The private view, early in the morning, before I can be bored with cackle of critics and entangled in the tails of women, is one of the things worth living for, and I shall be truly grateful if you will remember your kind promise and secure me this pleasure." "SIR ISUMBRAS." 1857 By permission of Mr. R. H. Benson I857] cc SIR ISUMBrBRAS " 317 On Charles Reade's death, "Sir Isumbras" became the property of Mr. John Graham, and on his death Mr. Robert Benson bought it for a large sum. Touching the alterations and additions it received in I892, Mr. Benson kindly sends me the following note: -" As to ' The Knight' I bought it at Christie's, at the sale of the pictures of Mr. John Graham of Skelmorlie, in (I think) i886. It was framed in an abominable stucco frame, of about I857, with rounded top corners. I had a carved frame made from one of the fine models in the South Kensington Museum. "I think he (Millais) was glad that we got it, j. and Lady Millais too. One... day I asked him what he thought of putting some trappings on the horse, and he jumped at the idea, saying that he should like to have the chance of improving the outline — the silhouette, as you may still see it in Hollyer's photo —and relieve and break the blackness of the beast. "Thenceforward we went about, my wife and I, taking notes and studies MOTHER AND CHILD. Crc. 1860 of horse-trappings and armour wherever we met with them. Our most promising finds were in the Escurial, in the armoury at Madrid. One day in 1892 (it was July ixth) he wrote asking us to let him have it, and to send him our notes. There was to be an exhibition at the Guildhall, and he wanted it to be seen again. So I sent it with the notes and a photo, on which I roughly pencilled what we thought it needed, viz., a fuller throat, a crest, a dilated nostril, a twisted tail, a deeper girth (to give the horse strength to carry the man in armour, not to speak of the children), a broad bridle, instead of the thin green 318 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1857 and yellow rein, and lastly the trappings. We also wanted the green and yellow bridle abolished, and a certain garish flower by the horse's ear. We particularly begged him to leave the exceptionally large, open eyes of the girl, as being characteristic of 1857 and of the effect he then sought. He kept it a month. I confess we were nervous, knowing the difficulty he was sure to feel in matching the work of 1857, and feeling our own audacity in having ventured to suggest by the pencilling on the.-X. -;; photo just what we wanted done and no more. I tried more than once to see him,..I........i.... and once M rs. Holford came with me, but whether could not get into the studio. But on August x th the picture came back finished. " We were (and are still) delighted with what he did. He just removed the blot, and the picture reIB_ ~mained all that we loved STUDY OF A CHILD. Circ. 858 most in his work a splendid portrait of an old man, an adorable little boy, and a glorious landscape, a strong but balanced scheme of colour, and a composition which, by selecting the pictorial moment, tells a simple story - a romance if you will - that makes us all akin. " Here is the letter he wrote me (copy enclosed):-" To Mr. Benson. "2 PALACE GATE, KENSINGTON, "( August 5Ith/, 1892, "DEAR BENSON, - Send for the Knight on Saturday morning, as I have done all I can for the picture, and very glad I am to have had the opportunity of making it so complete. I have seen many old and useful drawings at the Heralds' College, where they have the whole pageant of the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting of Henry VIII. and Francis I., and some of the harness is covered with bells, I857] '"THE ESCAPE OF A HERETIC" 319 which adds a pleasant suggestion of jingle to the Knight's progress. I have also been studying horses daily, and the stud is good enough now. It was most incorrect, and has necessitated a great deal of work. "Faulty as it undoubtedly was, the poetry in the picture ought to have saved it from the savage onslaught of all the critics, notably John Ruskin, who wrote of it, 'This is not a fiasco, but a catastrophe.' "On the other hand, Thackeray embraced me-put his arms round my neck and said, 'Never mind, my boy, go on painting more such pictures.'... I am very proud of having painted it, and delighted to know it is in the hands of one who appreciates its merits. "Sincerely yours, " J. E. MILLAIS." As a matter of fact the alterations took the artist a very short time to complete, when he had once decided what they should be. After lunch he would stroll up Kensington Gardens to the "Row," where he leaned over the rails, making a few notes and rough outlines of horses as they passed along, until he got the particular movement of the animal that he wanted to express. But, as will be gathered from his letter, the preliminary work involved a good deal of trouble. In the spring of 1857 Millais and his wife took rooms in Savile Row, London, where he chiefly occupied himself with his picture "The Escape of a Heretic, I559." Of this work, which was intended as a pendant to " The Huguenot," my mother writes: "The idea of making a pendant to 'The Huguenot' occurred to him whilst we were visiting Mr. W. Stirling at Keir, in the autumn after our marriage. That gentleman possesses a book of fine old woodcuts of the time of the Inquisition, when persecutions in the Netherlands were carried on under the Duke of Alva. He also possesses a series of Spanish pictures which had been used to illustrate his own work on The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V. Amongst these woodcuts were several representing burnings in Spain, the women and men being habited in the hideous dress of the 'San Benito.' The victims were generally attended by priests exhorting them to penitence 320 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I857 as they pursued their way to the martyrs' pile. The 'San Benito' dress consists of an upper shirt, without sleeves, of coarse sacking painted yellow, with designs of devils roasting souls in flames. With the aid of some engravings of monks of the different orders, sent by Mr. Rawdon Brown, and the habit of a Carthusian from the Papal States, lent by Mr. Dickenson, we easily made up the dresses for the models, whilst Millais drew the staircase of Balhousie Castle for the prison.. from whence the girl is escaping by aid of her lover. Millais iiiiworked on this picture and 'The Knight' at the same time. The expression of the.I.lover's face gave him immense trouble. The model was a young gamekeeper in the service of Mr. Condie. He was handsome, very lazy, continually getting tired, and not coming when sent for. Millais took the face, and mouth particularly, many times completely out. The girl's expression was very troublesome also, and he was H anlong in pleasing himself with it." Whilst Millais waited the hanging of his pictures at the Royal Academy his wife traSKETCH FOR TENNYSON ILLUSTRATION. S855 veiled again to their home in the North. His letters to her at this time are particularly interesting, as showing what he thought of the artistic outlook. In the first, dated May i3th, 1857, he says:- " My friends Bartle Frere and Colonel Turner dined with me at the Garrick yesterday. They are both old friends of mine, and we had a very pleasant party. I met Thackeray there, and he spread out his great arms and embraced me in stage fashion, in evidence of his delight at my pictures. He never before expressed such extreme satisfaction, and said they were magnificent." The Times' review of the Royal Academy then came out with a stinging critique on his pictures, and all the other F-~31-F-~113~lllll-3LI I T. ~ SKIT ON "SIR ISUMBRAS" AND THE P.R.B. By Fred Sandys I8571 "APPLE BLOSSOMS" 323 papers joined in chorus. On this he wrote to his wife, on May 15th:-" Doubtless you have seen the Times and its criticism. When I heard it was written in the same spirit as usual I did not read it. I therefore only know of its import through my friends. The general feeling is that it is not of the slightest importance. Criticism has been so tampered with that what is said carries little or no weight. Ruskin, I hear, has a pamphlet in the press which takes a pitying tone at my failure. The wickedness and envy at the bottom of all this are so apparent to me that I disregard all the reviews (I have not read one), but I shall certainly have this kind of treatment all my life. The public crowd round my pictures more than ever, and this, I think, must be the main cause of animosity..... I should tell you that although my friend Tom Taylor is said to have written the first two reviews in the Times, this last is not attributed to him. "The only good that I can see in the criticism is its unusual length (from what I hear it is nearly a column). I confess I am disgusted at the tone of the thing; indeed with everything connected with Art. "Combe, of Oxford, came yesterday. He wants me to paint him a picture about the size of the 'Heretic' (anything larger than that size is objected to). There is no encouragement for anything but cabinet pictures. I should never have a small picture on my hands for ten minutes, which is a great temptation to do nothing else. I saw Tennyson again at the Prinseps', and was most entertained at the petting' that went on. Miss B. [a famous beauty] was there, and asked after you. She has fallen off, but is still beautiful." In May, 1858, they went as usual to Bowerswell, where in due time the artist applied himself to " Apple Blossoms," or "Spring "as it was latterly called, painting it in neighbouring orchards. Here I must again avail myself of my mother's notebook, and her remarks on " Spring Flowers," as she calls it. " This picture, whatever its future may be, I consider the most unfortunate of Millais' pictures. It was begun at Annat Lodge, Perth, in the autumn of 1856, and took nearly four years to complete. The first idea was to be a study of an apple tree in full blossom, and the picture was begun with a lady sitting under the tree, whilst a knight in the back 324 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i858 ground looked from the shade at her. This was to have been named 'Faint Heart Never Won Fair Ladye.' The idea was, however, abandoned, and Millais, in the following spring, had to leave the tree from which he had made such a careful painting, because the tenant at Annat Lodge would not let him return to paint, for she said if he came to paint in the garden it would disturb her friends walking there. This was ridiculous, but Millais, looking about for some other suitable trees, soon found them in the orchard of our kind neighbour Mrs. Seton (Potterhill), who paid him the greatest attention. Every day she sent her maid with luncheon, and had tablecloths pinned up on the trees so as to form a tent to shade him from the sun, and he painted there in great comfort for three weeks whilst the blossoms lasted. During that year (I857) he began to draw in the figures, and the next year he changed to some other trees in Mr. Gentle's orchard, next door to our home. Here he painted in quiet comfort, and during the two springs finished all the background and some of the figures. The centre figure was painted from Sir Thomas Moncrieff'sdaughter Georgiana (afterwards Lady Dudley); Sophie Gray, my sister, is at the left side of the picture. Alice is there too, in two positions, one resting on her elbow, singularly like, and the other lying on her back with a grass stem in her mouth. He afterwards made an etching of this figure for the Etching Club, and called it 'A Day in the Country.' When the picture of 'Spring Flowers' was on the easel out of doors, and in broad sunlight, the bees used often to settle on the bunches of blossom, thinking them real flowers from which they might make their honey." In July, 1858, my mother went to St. Andrews, in Fife, and to her Millais wrote:" I have been working hard all day; have finished Alice's top-knot, and had that little humbug Agnes Stewart again, but I am not sure with what success. I had capital trips with the MacLarens [neighbours living at Kinfauns Castle] to Loch Flukey [Loch Freuchie, near Amulree, formerly an excellent trout loch]. We caught eleven dozen trout, and had great fun about settling where to sleep. I slept on the dining-room table, in preference to a sofa, as the horse-hair appeared a likely harbour for fleas, etc. A great tub was brought in for the morning bath, and towels about the size of pocket-handkerchiefs, so I used my sheets instead.... "APPLE BLOSSOMS." 1856-i859 Byj~errnission of Mr. Clarke 1 858] VISIT TO HIS PARENTS 327 I was up at five in the Hielands, and fished a beautiful little river (the Braan) before breakfast. I hope you will get tremendously strong. All that salt water ought to do wonders. Sophie must also come back blooming, to be painted in my picture." On the envelope of this letter is an amusing sketch, showing some lady bathers coming out of the sea, and men playing golf close by. In August Millais went South on a visit to his parents at Kingston-on-Thames, where they had a charming little house overlooking the river. He went by sea, taking with.' sisters, Sophie and Alice, who had also been invited; and in the following letter A he gives us a little insight into the home life of the old people: -k"Here we are in William's [his brother's] pc room. The girls are sitting b wre with me in perfect quiet, as they are still very unwell. my strAhgI had nearly Neither of them could eat any breakfast, and everything is whirling about them, as it is with me. Otherwise I am perfectly comfortable, ste*la 'g having managed my cigar SKETCH FOR "RUTH." c. 855 after breakfast. We have just been listening to my sister [Emily Millais, Mrs. Wallack] playing on the piano-'awfully well,' as the girls say... My father has most gorgeous peaches and nectarines ripe against the wall, and much finer than the glass-house ones at Perth, which shows the climate to be warmer. " Now to tell you about my sister. Although I had nearly forgotten her, I think I would have known her again, she is so like William, and not at all American, as I had expected. She is still pretty, and her little boy is here-very like her, with a good profile, and very excitable. She is very strong, though not so to look at, and has the un-put-down-able 'go' of William, for since breakfast she has played to me more than you could play in a month, and is not the least tiredt 328 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I858... It is rather a loss William not being here, as he would complete the group so thoroughly. " The place is covered with pretty flowers, and really looks lovely. My father has just come down and shown me two most beautiful water-colour drawings of William's, both of which are sold, and I have this minute come from looking after Alice, who is recovering quickly. She is in the armchair, and my father is playing the guitar to her. I can't tell you how very odd it seems to me, being amongst them here again. There is certainly a dash of the French about them all, for they are all so extraordinarily happy and satisfied with themselves." After this visit he went off shooting and fishing, as usual, for a couple of months, and on his return to Bowerswell he nearly finished the "Apple Blossoms," and commenced (in October) " The Vale of Rest." Here my mother's note-book again proves helpful as an illustration of his life and work at this period; interesting, too, as a reflection of her own views on the only subject on which they were at variance. As a strict Presbyterian she greatly disliked his working on Sundays, as he often did when the painting fever was strong upon him; and her entries on this subject are at once quaint and characteristic. She writes: -" Mr. Millais exhibited no pictures in 1858. He began a last picture of a Crusader's return, and stuck, after five months' hard labour. I was much averse to his painting every Sunday, and thought no good would come of it, as he took no rest, and hardly proper time for his meals. He made no progress, only getting into a greater mess; so when spring came we were thankful to pack up the picture and go to Scotland. Here he occupied himself on his 'Spring' apple blossoms picture, but did not set vigorously to work till the autumn. This winter [I858] he has achieved an immensity of work, and I attribute his success greatly to his never working on Sunday all this year. I will describe his pictures of this year in order, and begin with the Nuns ('The Vale of Rest'), which, like all his best works, was executed in a surprisingly short space of time. " It had long been Millais' intention to paint a picture with nuns in it, the idea first occurring to him on our wedding tour in I855. On descending the hill by Loch Awe, from Inverary, he was extremely struck with its beauty, and the coachman told us that on one of the islands there were the I858] "THE VALE OF REST" 329 ruins of a monastery. We imagined to ourselves the beauty of the picturesque features of the Roman Catholic religion, and transported ourselves, in idea, back to the times before the Reformation had torn down, with bigoted zeal, all that was beautiful from antiquity, or sacred from the piety or remorse of the founders of old ecclesiastical buildings in this country. The abbots boated and fished in the loch, the vesper bell pealed forth the 'Ave Maria' at sundown, and the organ notes of the Virgin's hymn were carried by the water and transformed into a sweeter melody, caught up on the hillside and dying away in the blue air. We pictured, too, white-robed nuns in boats, singing on the water in the quiet summer evenings, and chanting holy songs, inspired by the loveliness of the world around them.. ' Millais said he was determined to paint nuns some day, and one night this autumn, being greatly impressed with the beauty of the sunset (it was the end of October) he rushed for a large canvas, and began at once upon it, taking for background the wall of our garden at Bowerswell, with the tall oaks and poplar trees behind it. The sunsets were lovely for two or three nights, and he dashed the work in, softening it afterwards in the house, making it, I thought, even less purple and gold than when he saw it in the sky. The effect lasted so short a time that he had to paint like lightning. "It was about the end of October, and he got on very rapidly with the trees and worked every afternoon, patiently and faithfully, at the poplar and oak trees of the background until November, when the leaves had nearly all fallen. He was seated very conveniently for his work just outside our front door, and, indeed, the principal part of the picture, excepting where the tombstones come, is taken from the terrace and shrubs at Bowerswell." The background of "The Vale of Rest" remains very much to-day what it was when Millais painted it. A few of the old trees are gone; but there are the same green terraces, and the same sombre hedges; there, too, is the corner of the house which, under the artist's hands, appeared as an ivy-covered chapel. The grave itself he painted from one freshly made, in Kinnoull churchyard; and much amused he was by the impression he made while working there. Close by lived two queer old bachelors, who, in Perth, went by the names of "Sin and Misery." They watched him .33~ JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I858 intently as he painted away day by day amongst the tombs without even stopping for refreshment, and after the first day they came to the conclusion that he made his living by portraying the graves of deceased persons. So they goodnaturedly brought him a glass of wine and cake every day, and said what they could by way of consolation for the hardships of his lot. The rest of the tale is thus told by my mother:-" The graveyard portion was painted some months later, in the very cold weather, and the wind often threatened to knock the SKETCH FOR ILLUSTRATION. 1858 frame over. The sexton kept him company, made a grave for him, and then, for comfort's sake, kept a good fire in the dead-house. There Millais smoked his pipe, ate his lunch,;' ';-;-; ';................... and warmed himself." It is always interesting to hear from artists who have painted a successful picture, how and under what circumstances it was done. One man will tell you that his work was the inspiration of a moment, and the whole thing was dashed off in a few days, maybe a few hours - as was Landseer's "Sleeping Bloodhound." Another has, perhaps, spent months or years on some great work; it has been painted, repainted, altered a hundred times, and then not satisfied the painter. Again, an unsatisfactory pose of a figure has often -..-...-..-.........................................-.....-...........-0, 0 fffff,00 000 000 000 |.EEEEEEE-.ERiEEEE.... -....... -. -.. 00..:E-E l-......00 -.;T 0002000000.E EE- E E.0.. -iER. 0200-. E -..................ER.ERE -E. ER......................................................... CE........f~! CH~ ff-fSif-. -E EiiEEiiiEEE. - TiEf -iH. Ei. i. -i.- --..-......iE i..................... -.............-EE~~zz~ zzz~-E zzzzzzzzzzE z- Rz z~zEz -- a........... ", 00,000-.-''ig "' -:' 0" ''00 -...........00 0."S p --- 2 -0 -.............00t-ttt —0...0 V\-tt't-tt"t'- ''".'.'".'''.','....;;;.g.....g;..;;;-g;-;;tt;;; gffS E00;00............f -f-f -fff- - tta painter. Agaill, an unsatisfactory pose of a figure has often i858] "THE VALE OF REST" 33I driven a conscientious artist to the verge of insanity. And this was the case with the figure of the woman digging in "The Vale of Rest." I have heard my mother say she never had such a time in her life as when my father was painting that woman. Everything was perfect ^^ — in the picture except this wretched female, and nothing would induce her to go right. Every day for seven weeks he painted and repainted her, with the result that the figure was worse than ever, and he was almost distracted. My mother then proceeded to hatch a plot with my grandmother to steal the picture! This was. skilfully effected one day when he had left his work for afew hours. The two arch-plotters took it between them and carried it into a wine-cellar, where it was securely locked up. When the painter returned to work and found his treasure gone he was, of course, in a dreadful state of mind, and on discovering the trick that had been played him, he tried every means to make them give it up to him, but this they steadfastly refused to do. SKETCH FOR ILLUSTRATION. 1859 Here then was a predicament! For some days he would settle to nothing, and the model, who received good payment, would insist on coming every day and sitting in the kitchen, saying that she was engaged till the picture was finished. The situation at last became comic - Millais furious, the conspirators placid, smiling, but firm, and the model immovable. 332 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1I858 At last he was persuaded to set to work on some watercolour replicas of " The Huguenot" and "The Heretic," for Mr. Gambart, and as he became interested in them he gradually calmed down. When the picture was eventually returned to him, he saw at a glance where his mistake lay, and in a few hours put everything right. My uncle William tells an amusing story about this, which is worth repeating in his own words: — " Millais, as everyone knows, had the greatest power in the realistic rendering of all objects that came under his brush, and the veriest tyro could not fail to recognise at a glance the things that he painted. I remember, however, a case in which the power was not recognised; in fact, the objects painted failed to convey the faintest notion of what they were intended to represent. An old Scotchman, after looking at 'The Vale of Rest' for some time, said to my brother in my hearing, 'Well, the picture's all well enough, but there's something I don't like.' My brother, who was always ready to listen to any criticism, said, 'What don't you like? Speak out, don't be afraid!' "'Well,' said he, 'I don't like the idea of water in a grave.' ' Water in a grave?' said my brother. ' Well, there it is, plain enough' (pointing to a mattock), 'pouring into the grave.' He had actually mistaken the sheen of a steel mattock for a jet of water, and the handle for a bridge across the grave. This was too good a story not to be passed round, and it was told on the occasion of the picture being privately exhibited at the Langham Chambers, just before being sent to the Royal Academy. There was a good assemblage of people, and amongst them, though unrecognised, the old gentleman himself. The story was told with great gusto by John Leech (in my presence), and a roar of laughter followed, coupled with the words, 'What an old ass he must have been! ' Whereupon the old gentleman sprang up from the sofa and said, ' I'm the verra man mysel'.' It was honest of him, to say the least." Mr. M. H. Spielmann, who has carefully studied Millais' works, says of it: - " This picture I have always felt to be one of the greatest and most impressive ever painted in England; one in which the sentiment is not mawkish, nor the tragedy melodramatic-a picture to look at with hushed voice and bowed head; in which the execution is not overwhelmed by the story; in which the story is emphasised by the com ................................................................................................ -........................................................................................................................ 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''I'll................................................................................................................................................................ 111.111........................ Jl. I858] "THOSE TERRIBLE NUNS" 333 position; and in which the composition is worthy of the handling." "This is the year Mr. Millais gave forth those terrible nuns in the graveyard ": thus Mr. Punch characterised the year I859.* Even Ruskin, denouncing the methods, and admitting (unjustly) the ugliness and "frightfulness" of the figures, was constrained to allow it nobility of horror, if horror it was, and the greatness of the touching sentiment. His charge of crudeness in the painting no longer holds good. Time -that grand Old Master to which Millais did homage in act and word-has done the work the artist intended him to do; and I venture to think that in the New Gallery of British Art there will be no more impressive, no more powerful work than that which shocked the Art world of I859. In 1862 Millais saw how he could improve the face of the nun that is seated at the head of the grave, so he had the picture in his studio for a week, and repainted the head from a Miss Lane. During 1858 was also painted "The Love of James the First of Scotland." It will be remembered that this unfortunate monarch was confined for many years in Windsor Castle. In the garden below his prison used to walk the beautiful Lady Jane Beaufort, and he fell in love with her; but his only means of communicating with her was by dropping letters through the bars of the grated window. This is the scene represented in the picture. The castle and wall were taken from the picturesque old ruin of Balhousie Castle, which overlooks the North Inch of Perth. On p. 361 is given a photo of the exact wall, with the model's hand dropping a love-letter from the window. Millais' model for this picture was Miss Eyre, of Kingston, whose sister, Miss Mary Eyre, he also painted the following year as " The Bride "-a girl with passion flowers in her hair. t While the work was in hand, an old woman came for three days, and stood staring alternately at the artist and the castle, evidently without any notion of what he was about. Disliking the presence of observers while he was at work, he looked up suddenly and exclaimed, "Well, what are you * The limes was this year favourable, and acknowledged " The Vale of Rest" as a work of merit. t This lady was singularly like the Countess de Grey, and on this account the portrait was purchased at a sale by Lord de Grey. 334 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS looking at?" To which she replied, " Weel —that's juist what a was gaein tae ask ye. What are you glowerin at?" Cetera desunt. To the uninitiated I may explain that, in the Scotch tongue,. " glowerin " means staring rudely and intently. At this time (November, I859), though work went on; briskly, began a long period of anxiety on account of my mother's health, ensuing on the birth of her eldest daughter. She had imprudently gone, one cold winter's day, to Murthly,. to make a drawing of some tapestry in the old castle, for one of my father's pictures; and, sitting long at her task, she contracted a chill, which affected the optic nerves of both her eyes. A temporary remedy was found, but in late years the mischief again reappeared, to the permanent detriment of her eyesight. SOPHIA GRAY." 1853 CHAPTER IX The struggle of I859- Millais seriously feels the attacks made upon him, but determines to fight- Insulted at every turn - Origin of " The Vale of Rest - The fight for independence-" The Black Brunswicker "-Millais describes itDickens' daughter sits for the lady - Mrs. Perugini describes her sittings -- Faint praise from the Press -Great success of the picture - Holman Hunt likewise successful - Millais' black-and-white work - Letters to his wife - Lady Waterford. WE come now to the turning-point in the life of thepainter - to the period when, with the exception of a few strong men of independent judgment, all the powers. of the Art world were set in array against him - the critics, the Academy, and the Press - and, under their combined influence, even the picture-dealers began to look askance at his works as things of doubtful merit. Buyers, too, held aloof, not daring to trust their own judgment in opposition to, so great an authority as Mr. Ruskin; for by this time Ruskin had attained a position in the land absolutely unapproached. by any other critic before or since. With a charm of diction unequalled in English prose, he had formulated certain theories of his own which every artist must accept or reject under peril of his severest condemnation; and as "Sir Isumbras "- the last of Millais' works that may be termed purely Pre-Raphaelite-was found to sin against these requirements, it fell under his ban as utterly unworthy of the: applause it had gained from the public. It has been well said that "the eye of a critic is often like a microscope, made so very fine and nice that it discovers the atoms, grains, and minutest particles without ever comprehending the whole, comparing the parts, or seeing all at once the harmony." And, as will presently be seen, that was, in Millais' view at least, the affliction from which Mr. Ruskin was suffering at this time. It is not given to every man to withstand such a formidable attack as that to which my father was now exposed. From the financial point of view the situation was critical 335 336 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i859 in the extreme. Ruin stared him in the face -- ruin to himself, his wife, and family. One cannot therefore wonder that, under the strain and peril of the time, his letters betray not only his amazement at the crass stupidity of some of his critics, but his deep sense of injury, and a rooted belief that envy, hatred, and malice were at the bottom of all this uproar. All this, together with a record of his doings during the months of April and May, I859, will be found in the following extracts from his letters, in reading which it must be borne in mind that these letters were intended only for the eye of his wife, for whose comfort at this trying time he would naturally and rightly open his mind without any thought of egotism or empty boast. The letters are dated from his father's house at Kingston, to which in joyous anticipation of success at the coming Royal Academy Exhibition he betook himself with his pictures early in April. ' South Cottage, 7th April.- There are three or four people after my pictures, and I have no doubt of making more than I expected by them. William will write to you about what was said, but I will simply tell you in a word that nothing could possibly be more successful, 'The Nuns' especially. I have called it 'The Vale of Rest, Where the weary find repose - from one of Mendelssohn's most lovely part-songs. I heard William singing it, and said it just went with the picture, whereupon he mentioned the name and words, which are equally suitable. Marochetti said to William, before a number of people, that 'The Nuns' should have a place in the national collection, between Raphael and Titian; and Thackeray and Watts expressed nearly the same opinion. Indeed, the praise is quite overwhelming, and I keep out of it as much as possible, as I am not able to bear it, I feel so weakened by it all. While William was showing the two large pictures, I was painting away at the single figure, which I finished perfectly, having worked at it from five in the morning. I felt quite inspired, and never made a mistake. It is, I think, the most beautiful of all. " Nothing could exceed the kindness of my people about me, and only through their indefatigable assistance could "THE BRIDE.". Circ. 1858 By permission of Mr. A. D. Grimmnond i859] LETTERS TO HIS WIFE 339 I have finished the third. All were framed and sent in to the Royal Academy in good time." The three pictures were "The Vale of Rest," "The Love of James I. of Scotland," and "Apple Blossoms." They had been seen and praised by hundreds of people before they were exhibited to the public, and the artist knew they were the best he had ever painted; but no sooner did they appear on the Academy walls than they were attacked as already indicated, the admiration of the public who persistently crowded.,,,, in front of them, and his own....... knowledge of their value, being / the only consolation he could lay to heart. His next letter betrays the revulsion of feeling caused by this cruel, not to say malignant, attack. C: "April ioth.- In the midst of success I am dreadfully lowspirited, and the profession is I more hideous than ever in my g eyes. Nobody seems to understand really good work, and |j even the best judges surprise me with their extraordinary iremarks... Nothing can be more irritating and perplexing than the present state of things. SKETCH FOR "THE B BLACK UNSWICKER." 86o There seems to be a total want of confidence in the merits of the pictures, amongst even the dealers. They seem quite bewildered. Even John Phillip said that he thought it was high time I should come and live in London. As if that had anything to do with my Art! " I would write oftener to you, but really I have nothing either pleasant or satisfactory to write about. I am far from well, and everybody says they never saw such a change in any man for the worse. I could scarcely be quieter, too, as I never stay in town or have any wish to be amongst riotous fellows; yet the reaction of leaving off work is very trying.". "April I3th, I859.- There seems to be but one opinion 340 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1859 amongst unprejudiced people as to the success of my pictures this year, but ZIooo for a picture is a very rare thing. It is true that that sum has been given already this year for a picture by 0-; but you must remember that my pictures are not vulgar enough for the City merchants, who seem to be the only men who give these great prices.... I am much better after yesterday's headache, and got up this morning early, and have been reading and playing chess with my mother ever since.... It is a fine day, so I shall go and see the University Boat Race. Yesterday I met in the Burlington Arcade an old friend from India, the brother of our old friend Grant who died. (I drew him in pen-andink, dying, surrounded by his family.) The brother has grown into an enormous man, with moustaches nearly half a yard broad - a very handsome fellow." "April I8t/, I859. - Hunt and Collins dined here yesterday. The pain in my chest is nearly gone, so I am no longer uneasy. It must have been from working too hard and leaning forward so much, but I hope to begin my work again this week.... Ruskin was talking to young Prinsep, and said he had been looking at the 'Mariana,' which I painted years ago, and had come to the sage conclusion that I had gone to the dogs and am hopelessly fallen. So there is no doubt of what view he will take of my works this year; but (as Hunt, who has a high opinion of their excellence, says) if he abuses them he will ruin himself as a critic. Already he is almost entirely disregarded. I hear that Leighton has a picture in the Royal Academy, but nothing of its worth. This picture, whether good or bad, will be set up against mine. The enmity is almost overwhelming, and nothing but the public good sense will carry me through.... I am sanguine, in spite of every drawback, though I know there is a possibility of my not realising my anticipations regarding the sale of the pictures; but in that case I am perfectly prepared to keep them. They must not, and shall not, be thrown away." "April I 9h. - William was singing at his Hanover Square Rooms last night, but I could not be there. He seems to have made a real success, as he always does in public. I am wonderfully well and have quite recovered my spirits, and am now prepared to act determinedly. No persuasion will now induce me to sacrifice my work. You see, by putting a very high price on it, the dealers are entirely shut out, i859] LETTERS TO HIS WIFE 341 and thereby become my most inveterate enemies, which is no joke considering the powerful influence they have. They, added to the Royal Academy, which is always against me, make the army a difficult one to combat. When I sold my works to the dealers they were my friends, and counteracted this artistic detraction. There is, without doubt, an immense amount of underhand work, and I can scarcely regard a single professional man as my friend. I am quite settled, however, in my position, to stand a violent siege." "April 23rd. - The day after to-morrow I shall attend the Ex- I hibition [at the Royal Academy]y / se privately with the members. I am prepared for some disappointment; it always happens. "To-night at 1i2 all the parish teiao children sing through the village, headed by the parson, my father, William, Arthur Coleridge, and others. Leslie (the choir-man), is here, staying with Coleridge; of stari he played delightfully this morning in the studio. I am sure, dear, life 1 \)abii you would be charmed with the society here; the people seem to appreciate the family very much, s natur and are endless in their kind- F E6W nesses, sending things to my mother [she was very ill at this time] and inquiring daily after her health. William, too, is surrounded by pretty girls." After his visit to the Royal Academy to see how his pictures were hung, he writes' - "April 26/k. -It is always a melancholy thing to the painter to see his work for the first time in an empty room; and yesterday was a most dreadful, dark, rainy day. Everything looked dismal. The single figure is not well hung, although perfectly seen. All three, of course, lose in my eyes, for they are surrounded by such a perplexity of staring colour; for instance, an officer in size of life, in a brilliant red coat, is hung next to ' The Nuns,' which must naturally hurt it. ' The Orchard' [' Apple Blossoms'], I think, looks better. There are no less than three pictures of orchard 342 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I859 blossoms, but small, as the artist had no time to enlarge them. Hook's are very fine indeed, small, but lovely in colour- quite as good as my own. He is about the only first-rate man they have. Boxall has some beautiful portraits - one of an old man especially so. Stansfield and Roberts as usual. Landseer, of course, good; but, between ourselves, not quite so much so as of yore. He was most kind, and said he understood the quality of my work entirely; and when I told him they were unsold, he laughed and said, 'Oh, you need not mind about that. I would sell them fast enough.' Frank Grant, too, was most cordial, and asked after you. He and Landseer went backwards and forwards many times between 'The Orchard'and 'The Nuns.' I am told by all the Hanging Committee that they have come to the conclusion that 'The Vale of Rest' would have been perfect had I left the digging nun alone, and that 'The Orchard' is spoilt by Sophie's and Alice's heads to the left of the picture." "April 28th.- I got home here [at Kingston] last night after a hard day's rubbing at the pictures, which improved them immensely. I see things are creeping favourably on. Landseer this year is a most energetic admirer; he said yesterday, before many of the members, that my pictures are far beyond everything I have ever done. Roberts, too, said I am sure to sell them at the private view. I have a few truly good friends in the Royal Academy, amongst the best men, in spite of the wicked clique who, of course, do their best to run me down. There is no great 'catch'this year, except perhaps O-'s companion picture to his last year's one. It is very good (well painted), but egregiously vulgar and commonplace; but there is enough in it of a certain 'jingo' style to make it a favourite. This work may at first attract, but after a while it will not stand with the public. " Ruskin will be disgusted this year, for all the rubbish he has been praising before being sent into the RoyalAcademy has now bad places. There is a wretched work like a photograph of some place in Switzerland, evidently painted under his guidance, for he seems to have lauded it up sky-high; and that is just where it is in the miniature room! He does not understand my work, which is now too broad for him to appreciate, and I think his eye is only fit to judge the portraits of insects. But then, I think he has lost all real influence as a critic. i859] LETTERS TO HIS WIFE 343 "To-morrow is the private view. I have given my tickets to John Meech and his wife. He knows all the Press men, and is respected by all, so his opinion will be taken and carry weight. Did I tell you I rowed with my father up to Hampton Court, and met William and a large party, Miss Boothby [whom William Millais afterwards married], Miss Eyre [who sat to Millais several times], Coleridge, etc. Miss Boothby and I and William and Miss Eyre had a race home, and we beat them. My hands suffered in consequence, so I cannot row again just now." "April 29tk.- I have just come from the private view. To tell you the truth, I think it likely I shall not sell one of the pictures. The clique has been most successful against me this year, and few people look at my work. Ruskin was there, looking at 'The Nuns '; and Tom Taylor, who said nothing. Everywhere I hear of the infamous attempts to destroy me (the truth is these pictures are not vulgar enough for general appreciation). However, I must wait, for I don't know what the Press will say yet. Seeing that there is such a strong undercurrent against me, it is possible they may lift me up. " Gambart was there, and several dealers, but none spoke to me. They are not anxious to look into my eyes just now, and no wonder! Reade is sitting beside me as I write this. "The fact of the matter is, I am out of fashion. There will doubtless be a reaction, but the state of affairs in the Art world is at present too critical to admit of a good reward for all my labour. This is rather trying to me, I confess, after all my slavery, but it will account to you for my want of belief in the profession. You see, nobody knows anything about Art, so one is all at sea. The failures are most terrible in London just now, and things look very bad. What will become of Art, I don't know. It will not be worth following, if I cannot sell pictures such as these. I am sorry I have no good news for you, dear, but the lookout is anything but refreshing." " May 5th.- I returned here last night and opened three letters from you- all so kind and nice that they quite set me up. There have been no inquiries for any of my pictures; but now they are once more crowded - this time more than ever. You may, perhaps, laugh at it, but I have heard it said that the want of purchasers is a great deal due 344 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I859 to Ruskin having in his last pamphlet said that I was falling off. "Hunt and Leech, as well as the Rossettis and their clique, have expressed their admiration of my work of late, and yesterday Marochetti was kind enough to express the same sentiments. Landseer, who was with him, asked my address, in case he should have to write me, indicating his desire to sell them for me. After such opinions from such men, what is outside criticism? Yet, in spite of myself and my own convictions, I feel humiliated. " It has become so much the fashion to abuse me in the Press, that my best friends now occasionally talk in the same way. I have lost all pleasure and hope in my profession. " William has gone to the Exhibition, and I made arrangements to go to Aldershot with Leech; but all this anxiety, however much I try to dispel it, destroys my peace of mind, and I have a bad headache. Everybody bothers me too about living in the North, and says I have cut all my original friends, and will inevitably lose their interest. I candidly confess I never had such a trying time in my life. I would not care a farthing if I were a bachelor, but for your sake I cannot take such injustice calmly. It is a strange and unexpected end to all my labour, and I can only hope it will not affect you overmuch." " May Ioth. - Many happy returns of the day, my darling. I have just returned from Cambridge, where I met Airs. Jones, of Pantglass, the duke's enchantress. She made many inquiries about you, and sent her best love. She is most amusing, and I talked with her all the evening. She is a very handsome woman, with a fine figure, and got up most gorgeously. I was made much of by the Cambridge men. Ruskin's pamphlet is out, and White says it is favourable, although stating that the pictures are painted in my worst manner. How extraordinary the fate of these pictures has been! Never have pictures been more mobbed, but now the crowds mostly abuse them, following the mass of criticism; yet the fuss they are making in a way makes up for the abuse. No words can express the curious envy and hatred these works have brought to light. Some of the papers, I believe, have been so violent that for two days together they have poured forth such abuse as was never equalled in the annals of criticism. My works are not understood by the men who set themselves up as judges. i 859] SUPPORT OF HIS FRIENDS 34S Only when I am dead will they know their worth. I could not believe in such wanton cruelty as has been shown to me this year. There is no doubt that the critics have ruined the sale, for all who would have come forward now say that the nuns and grave are miserable to look at, and the appleblossoms full of ugliness. Let me, however, assure you, that they must win their way to the front in time. " The country is blooming everywhere now, and everything is happy. It is dreadful to be away from you so long. I am so glad to hear the children are well. I wish I could embrace them all; it would be delightful after all this vexation. Fate seems determined to make my profession hateful to me." Needless to say how welcome at such a time was the hearty support of the few members of the Academy and artist friends who refused to join in the cabal against him and his works, prominent amongst whom were Hunt, Landseer, Leech, Thackeray, Reade, and the two Rossettis. Amongst outsiders, too, were many sympathising friends, whose kind words and letters helped him to take heart again even in the darkest hours when oppression had well-nigh driven him to despair. Amongst these was his friend Mr. Lloyd, from whose letter I venture to quote a few memorable words. He says:-" I merely wish, by writing to you, to protest on behalf of myself and many friends against the injustice of the London critics, and to assure you that whenever I have discussed your picture ['The Vale of Rest'] with persons whose opinions are deservedly valued, I have found them nearly as enthusiastic admirers of it as myself. Some, too, agree with me that it is not only your greatest work, but that it by far excels in truthfulness, in rendering, and in nobleness of conception any picture exhibited within my recollection on the Royal Academy walls by any other artist. That you will live to see its merits more publicly acknowledged I have little doubt, and I sincerely hope that the ingratitude and prejudice of those who presume to dictate to the public what to admire will not induce you to disbelieve that there are thousands to whom your paintings are a great intellectual pleasure, and that the gradual liberation of the public mind from conventional rules will bring thousands more to the shrine hallowed by yourself and those of your brother artists who boldly and conscientiously pursue the path of truth." 346 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I859 Returning now to Millais' own letters, I find:"May I3th.- There is a decided improvement in the look of things. Gambart writes me a long letter, and I have a commission for a picture from New York. I am perfectly certain that there will be a reaction in my favour, sooner or later, as the abuse has been so violent. I wish I could afford to keep the pictures, as I am perfectly sure they will one day fetch very large sums. There is no chance of my selling my pictures to gentlemen- the dealers are too strong. SKETCH OF MISS KATE DICKENS FOR "THE BLACK BRUNSWICKER." 1859 Picture-buyers can barter with them when they cannot with the artist, and my pictures have remained unsold so long that no one will believe that they are valuable. All the other pictures of any pretensions in the Exhibition are sold. This is, of course, fearfully dispiriting, and a matter of wonder to me, as I have a high reputation; but my detractors have really induced the public to believe that the faults in my pictures spoil all the beauties. The crowds, too, round the pictures increase, but I am too much disgusted to think more about them. If I sell them, I will wipe the memory of them for ever from my mind, they have been such torments to me." At last the star of hope appeared on the horizon, in a quarter where it was least expected. The picture-dealers I859] THE STAR OF HOPE 347 began to come round, making timid inquiries as to prices; and one of them actually bought "The Vale of Rest." Commissions, too, came in, and the whole aspect of affairs was suddenly changed. The effect of all this upon Millais will be seen in the two following letters, written, it will be noticed, on two consecutive days. " iMay i6lh. - Cheer up! Things are quietly coming round. Already there is quite another aspect of affairs. W. is to give me a decided iA answer whether or not a client of his will have.........::::....:.....:.:...l...... 'The Nuns.' There is a demand also for the small picture, and G. wants to have the copyright, and is to let me know to-morrow morning whether he will have i the picture. Indeed, now I have n't a doubt that I shall sell all three.* i So much for the brutal criticisms! The fact is,.. I shall have my own way after all. If dealers give my prices they must make twenty per cent. on them... Last evening I was SKETCH OF MISS KATE DICKENS FOR as evening was THE BLACK BRUNSWICKER." I859 dining at the Prinsep's, and Watts quite cheered me. He says they will live forever, and willsoon find their properplace. It will be a great triumph in the end. The curious part of it is that 'The Orchard' is considerably more popular than' The Nuns,' and much more crowded. Hunt and Rossetti are wild about the latter. One * "The Vale of Rest," bought by Mr. Windus, of Tottenham, through W. the dealer, for 700 guineas, was afterwards sold to Mr. Tate for ~3000. It now hangs in the Tate Gallery, and is by common consent regarded as one of the artist's greatest pictures. 348 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I859 sees now how abuse can create attraction! I have just been to G. to sign the last forty prints of ' The Order of Release.' He tells me that 'The Royalist' had done well for him, and you will remember how fearfully it was abused when exhibited. X. [a dealer] begs me to paint the 'Petrarch and Laura,' and the dealers all look rather sheepish in asking me what I want for the pictures, being evidently afraid of one another, and yet not liking to appear too eager." "May I 'Ih.- I enclose X.'s letter, which you will understand. Whatever I do, no matter how successful, it will always be the same story. 'Why don't you give us the Huguenot again?' Yet I will be bound the cunning fellow is looking forward to engraving this very picture. You see he says at the end of his note he will ' risque ' engraving it if I like! "I have now enough commissions to last me all next year, so I am quite happy. I am so glad to hear you are getting well and strong again. That is better than all the sales of pictures." On May 2ist he went to meet his wife at Birmingham, and brought her back with him to Kingston, where, after all the excitement of this year, he was glad to have a quiet time while working away at his small commissions. Before saying good-bye to " The Vale of Rest," let me quote the words of Frances Low, who has admirably caught the spirit of its teaching: -" Who that has ever seen this picture forgets the wondrous sunset light that lingers, with a thousand evanescent hues, over the evening face of Nature, transforming and transfiguring decay, death itself, into a radiant golden vision? The spell of the figure is deepened by the dramatic face of the nun, whose deep, mysterious, and inscrutable eyes seem to reflect the spirit of inanimate Nature, with its unsurpassed loveliness and terror, and bid the troubled human soul seek its answer there." At the end of June my mother went North again, to make ready for her husband's coming-to a house near Bowerswel], called Potter Hill, which they had taken for the autumn; and there he wrote to her: - "July 201/. -'The Knight' ['Sir Isumbras'] leaves by carrier to-day, and I go up to town with a little sketch of it for White, and 'The Bridesmaid' for Gambart. What do you think? I have have nearly finished one of the heads from Miss Eyre, and by staying another week I shall manage to x859] LETTERS TO HIS WIFE 349 do the other. I shall love to see you again, and to get home... Yesterday I dined with Colonel Challoner at the mess a very nice old boy indeed, and rather like what poor old Captain Lempriere was. " I have managed everything satisfactorily. William is to bring 'The Vale of Rest' and 'James' Love' ['The Love of James I. of Scotland'] to Perth with him immediately after the close of the Royal Academy on the 3oth, when 'The Orchard' goes to Liverpool. In 'The Vale' I have just to make the nun's face a little prettier; must give also a few touches to 'James' Love.' Then William will return with the pictures, taking one to Windus and the other to Gambart. I could not well touch the nun's face without a look at Mrs. Paton [the woman who sat for the figure]. "I am working very hard, considering the heat of the weather. Miss Eyre (the younger one) is waiting for me to paint her. She makes a most lovely picture, and it is admired more than anything I have ever done of the kind." The autumn holiday followed, and then, greatly refreshed, Millais returned to town, intent on finding a home there for himself and his family. From his old quarters in Langham Chambers, to which he now went back, he wrote to my mother: "November I 7h, I859. -Yesterday I dined at the Garrick, and was with Gambart driving about all day looking for a house. Saw three, but all dampish and too near Mr. G and a lot of the artistic crew whom I do not wish to know, so I will look in healthier localities. Napoleon's old house, where his loves resided, is not to be let for any term under seven years, which is of course out of the question for us. White is delighted with the sketch, and says that 'The Orchard' is certain to sell this winter. There was an election of two Royal Academicians yesterday at the Academy, the choice being the last-made Associate, Phillip, and one Smirke, an unknown architect or sculptor, I really don't know which. "I happened to be dining last night next to Roberts and Stansfield, who would not be persuaded to believe my statement that I was not aware that it was election night, which was perfectly true. Both Stansfield and Roberts voted for Phillip, and I believe I had n't a vote at all. So you see it is pretty well as I have always told you, but it is really a matter of entire indifference to me, as my position is as good as any except Landseer's; and this they too well know. All the petty insults they can heap on me they will. 350 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I859 " After dining at the Garrick I went to the Cosmopolitan, and there met Morier [Sir Robert Morier, afterwards our Minister at St. Petersburg], who was just going away to Berlin. He did not know me, and took me for Leighton, so I have been taken twice for him of late. There must be a likeness between us. Charley Collins is writing a novel, which is already advertised. Gambart is making strenuous efforts to get 'The Rescue' to engrave. He has sold both 'James' Love' and 'The Girl on the Terrace,' so you see he does not want for immediate profit on my work." "The Black Brunswicker," one of Millais' most successful pictures, was now in his mind. In his next letter he gives his first idea of the way in which the subject should be treated. "November I8tk. - Yesterday I dined with Leech, who had a small dinner-party. Mrs. Dickens was there, also Mr. and Mrs. Dallas, whom you remember, and Billy Russell (the Times correspondent) and his wife. Shirley Brooks and myself were the rest of the party. We had some very interesting stories and gossip from Billy Russell, which would delight you all. I will keep them for you when we meet. Oddly enough, he touched upon the subject of the picture I am going to paint, and I asked him to clear up for me one or two things connected with it. He is a capital fellow, and is going to write me a long letter with correct information, which he can get. I told him my project (as it was absolutely necessary), but he promised to keep it secret, knowing how things are pirated. It was very fortunate, my meeting him, as he is the very best man for military information. My subject appears to me, too, most fortunate, and Russell thinks it first-rate. It is connected with the Brunswick Cavalry at Waterloo. "'Brunswickers' they were called, and were composed of the best gentlemen in Germany. They wore a black uniform with death's head and cross-bones, and gave and received no quarter. They were nearly annihilated, but performed prodigies of valour. It is with respect to their having worn crape on their arms in token of mourning that I require some information; and as it will be a perfect pendant to 'The Huguenot,' I intend making the sweetheart of a young soldier sewing it round his arm, and vainly supplicating him to keep from the bugle-call to arms. I have it all in my mind's eye, and feel confident that it will be a "THE BLACK BRUNSWICKER." i860 By permission of H. Graves and Son i860] "THE BLACK BRUNSWICKER " 353 prodigious success. The costume and incident are so powerful that I am astonished it has never been touched upon before. Russell was quite struck with it, and he is the best man for knowing the public taste. Nothing could be kinder than his interest, and he is to set about getting all the information that is required. "I sat next Mrs. Dickens, who desired her best remembrances to you, and hopes you will call and bring the children to see her. "To-morrow I am going shooting with Lewis in Kent. I have made up my mind not to live in town, but out in the Kingston direction, as all the houses I have seen here appear dirty and damp. White, too, thinks it would be decidedly better for me to be out of the way of cliques. I will draw in my picture [' The Black Brunswicker'] here. White confesses to me that, with the exception of Landseer and myself, there is not an artist whose pictures are safe to sell. Most men get a fictitious value placed on their works, and ruin themselves by producing too much. Their pictures are for sale every month. I am glad to think that when mine sell they are placed permanently. In the spring of I86o they took a nice house at the corner of Bryanstone Square, where he went on with his work on "The Black Brunswicker." And thereby hangs a tale. Miss Kate Dickens (Charles Dickens' daughter, now Mrs. Perugini) sat for the lady - a handsome girl, with a particularly sweet expression and beautiful auburn hair that contrasted well with the sheen of her white satin dress. The picture had not long been finished before the figure was claimed by more than one of the celebrities of the day; while, as to the Brunswicker, no less than five or six distinguished officers were said to have sat for it; but the fact is that my father, wishing to obtain the handsomest model he could, went, on the invitation of his friend the Colonel of the ist Life Guards, to inspect the regiment on parade at Albany Street Barracks, and there he found the very man he wanted in a private soldier- a splendid type of masculine beauty- and having, after great difficulty, obtained the uniform of a Black Brunswicker, he dressed him in it and painted his portrait. The poor fellow (I forget his name) died of consumption in the following year. The curious in such matters may like to know how the figures posed. I may say, therefore, that the two models 1-23 354 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I86o never sat together. "The Black Brunswicker" * clasped a lay-figure to his breast, while the fair lady leant on the bosom of a man of wood. The work was sold to M. Gambart for one thousand guineas. It took a long time to paint, and my father was so pleased with it that he afterwards did a replica in oils, which is now in the possession of the family. Mrs. Perugini has kindly favoured me with the following note of her experience as a sitter for this picture: "I made your father's acquaintance when I was quite a young girl. Very soon after our first meeting he wrote to my father, asking him to allow me to sit to him for a head in one of the pictures he was then painting, 'The Black Brunswicker.' My father consenting, I used to go to your mother and father's house, somewhere in the North of London, accompanied by an old lady, a friend of your family. I was very shy and quiet in those days, and during the 'sittings' I was only too glad to leave the conversation to be carried on by your father and his old friend; but I soon grew to be interested in your father's extraordinary vivacity, and the keenness and delight he took in discussing books, plays, and music, and sometimes painting-but he always spoke less of pictures than of anything else - and these sittings, to which I had looked forward with a certain amount of dread and dislike, became so pleasant to me that I was heartily sorry when they came to an end and my presence was no more required in his studio. "As I stood upon my 'throne,' listening attentively to everything that passed, I noticed one day that your father was much more silent than usual, that he was very restless, and a little sharp in his manner when he asked me to turn: my head this way or that. Either my face or his brush seemed to be out of order, and he could not get on. At last, turning impatiently to his old friend, he exclaimed, 'Come and tell me what's wrong here, I can't see any more, I've got blind over it.' She laughingly excused herself, saying she was no, judge, and would n't be of any use, upon which he turned to me. 'Do you come down, my dear, and tell me,' he said. As he was quite grave and very impatient, there was nothing * "A gentleman came into his studio, and seeing his famous picture of the ' Black Brunswicker,' asked, 'What uniform is that?' Millais, who had been at great trouble and expense to procure the exact costume,: replied, 'The Black Brunswicker.' ' Oh, indeed,' said the visitor; ' I knew it was one of the volunteers, but I was n't sure which regiment." - The Memories of Deani Hole. r-" r V ir-N A -. I I-% -r- A A 'C 7 T-% 'W ' V F-. r?_ - -I T i86o] 1iHl ALuA hlVl Y hi-ibliIsl UlN 355 for it but to descend from my throne and take my place beside him. As I did so I happened to notice a slight, exaggeration in something I saw upon his canvas, and told him of it. Instantly, and greatly to my dismay, he took up a rag and wiped out the whole of the head, turning at the same time triumphantly to his old friend. 'There! that 's what I always say; a fresh eye can see everything in.a moment, and an artist should ask a stranger to come in and look at his work, every day of his life. There! get back to your place, my dear, and we '11 begin all over again!'" As the time approached for the opening of the Royal Academy Exhibition, i860, great was the curiosity amongst those who had seen "The Black Brunswicker" * as to the view the Press would take of it, after the furious onslaught they had made on the artist's previous works. The remarkable success of these works, in spite of all their sneers and taunts, would hardly, it was thought, encourage them to renew the attack; but that they would give it a word of welcome was not to be expected, good as the picture was, and however much it might be admired. And now, when it appeared on the Academy walls, the public hailed it enthusiastically as one of the greatest gems of the Exhibition; but, with few exceptions, the Press, apparently willing to wound, but yet afraid to strike, reviewed it in the most ungracious spirit. To Millais, however, these anonymous criticisms had ceased to be of any moment. Confident in his own powers, and in full assurance of success after the victory of previous years, he now found renewed pleasure in his work, and never spared himself in perfecting to the best of his ability whatever he had in hand, whether oil-paintings or black-and-white drawings for the magazines, then in great request. Of this year's letters I have few beyond those written to his wife immediately before and after the opening of the Academy. "April 27th, I860. - The Leslie dinner was most agreeable. The company there Duke of Argyle, Lord and Lady Spencer, Lady Wharncliffe, Sir E. Landseer, Mulready, and myself. I went home afterwards with Sir Edwin, and spent some four hours in conversation over brandy and water. Yesterday Frere's dinner was delightful. To-morrow * The picture occupied three months in painting. The success caused the artist to make an exact copy of the original. This, however, was never quite finished, and is now in the possession of the family. 356 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i86o I go to the Royal Academy to touch up. Hunt's picture seems to be doing well as an exhibition." "May 2nd. -I write this from Martineau's, where I have just seen Hunt and Val Prinsep. All yesterday I was at the Royal Academy, and in the evening I had such a bad headache that I was obliged to return and go to bed early. I am, however, all right this morning. I found the woman in 'The Black Brunswicker' looking much better than I had hoped, and I very much improved her. The whole picture is by far the most satisfactory work I ever sent there. Everyone has expressed the same opinion; its success is certain. I met Tom Taylor at the Cosmopolitan with your father, and he said he had heard nothing but 'deadgood' of it." After commenting on some other Academy pictures, he continues: -" The fact is, the Royal Academy is the only place for a man to find his real level. All the defects come out so clearly that no private puffing is worth a farthing. You cannot thrust pictures down people's throats." "May 3rd. - You seem to see much more than we do here. I have seen no criticism on Hunt's picture [Holman Hunt was having a private exhibition of his work, which was very successful], and have only heard of one in the Illustra/ed London News. The Times has n't noticed it yet. I read what it said of 'The Black Brunswicker,' which was flippant, and not at all hearty in praise; moreover, it reads the story wrong.* The Athenceum is all right, but as it is written by a friend [F. G. Stephens] it is not surprising. That the picture is a great success there is no doubt. "I was at the Royal Academy this morning, but did not go when the public were admitted. Cooke (Royal Academy) asked me to dine with him at the Academy Club dinner at Greenwich, the annual feast. Although I accepted, I was obliged to excuse myself, for I met Dalziel yesterday, and he said I must give him the 'Framley' illustration on Wednesday, so I have returned from the Academy to design it. Cooke was evidently much vexed, and some of the Royal Academicians seem to think I wish to avoid them, they are so suspicious of me. I could not help it, however, and they must think what they like. Yesterday I went to * Millais meant the incident to be taking place on the eve of Waterloo or Quatre Bras, June, 1815, at which battle the leader of the Black Brunswickers, the Duke of Brunswick, was killed. The young Prussian is supposed to be saying good-bye to an English girl. I86o] LETTERS TO HIS WIFE 357 Arden's with Gambart, who, in my presence, offered more than once to buy from him 'The Rescue' [the picture of the fireman] for /2000! Fancy that! I received /580 for it. Gambart appears to be in the best spirits, and anxious to have everything I am doing. He says if I will let him have my pictures to exhibit separately from the Royal Academy, he will give me as much again for them; it would be worth his while. Arden is very anxious to have 'The Black Brunswicker,' and I am to paint a duplicate the same size directly it comes from the Academy. "I must now go and read Framley Parsonage, and try and get something out of it for my drawing. The dinner was very grand, and many of the blue ribbon swells were introduced to me, and asked whether the Times reading was correct. My picture certainly looks most satisfactory. There is nothing in the Exhibition to attract but Landseer's, Phillip's, and mine. I will try and leave this place on Thursday or Friday. This is a long letter, but I have lots to tell you when I come. So glad the children are well and your mother progressing. Keep yourself quite happy, for we have every reason to be thankful this year." " May 4th, I860. - I write this from Barwell's after having been for about two minutes at the private view. That sight is always so sickening to me that I cannot stand it. I saw Gambart, and dine with him this evening. I think I told you Windus has sold 'The Huguenot' to Miller, of Preston, for over a thousand (White told me as much). Hunt's exhibition is a tremendous success, and I believe Gambart is to give him /5000 for his picture. The public are much taken with the miniature-like finish and the religious character of the subject. The Royal Academy are tremendously jealous of the success of the picture, and his pocketing such a sum; but he has been seven years at it, and he says it has cost him '2000 painting it. He has n't earned a farthing all that time. I saw Watts' fresco in Lincoln's-inn Hall this morning, and it is magnziicent-by far the best thing of the kind in the kingdom.... Tomorrow is the dinner at the Royal Academy, and next week I hope to get to work at the blocks for the parables and the Cornhill. I will come very soon, and will then get on with 'The Poacher's Wife' and other work." " August I41t.- I have finished all my work except the parables, which I can do in the North. Bradbury and 358 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [ I-86o Evans want to buy my woodcut services, and I see them with Leech to-day at one. I will not bind myself in any way. At the same time, if they make me a thoroughly good offer, it is worth considering. Leech says he thinks they would give me o500 a year if I could regularly supply them; but this has to be considered, as I cannot let illustration interfere with my painting. It is pleasant to hear of my wood drawings rising to so much value...." Down to this time his black-and-white drawings, of which he made many, principally for contemporary literature, were done on boxwood, and destroyed in the process of cutting-in. Happily, however, the highly-finished illustrations, of which he did a large number in I853 and the three following years, were drawn on paper in pen and ink, and finished in sepiawash or body colour; so most of these drawings are still left in their original state, instead of being cut to pieces and ruined by the barbarians of the wood-cutting art. Truly the wood-cutters of that day had much to answer for. Except, perhaps, Swain, Dalziel, and John Thompson (who cut the Tennyson blocks) not one of them had the faintest conception of how to retain the beautiful and delicate lines of the original drawings; and even the best work of these experts would make the hair of the engravers of Harper's Magazine stand on end nowadays. The black-and-white artists of to-day have their drawings reproduced by various processes, which leave little to be desired; but if they could see, as I have done, some of my father's wood blocks before and after the drawings had been cut upon, they would indeed feel how much their predecessors had to suffer —even more, perhaps, than the old Celt of historic fame, who exclaimed, as he held his head in church on Sabbath morning, after "a nicht wi' Burns," "Puir auld Scotland, ye're sons are sair afflicted, whiles." The choicest of my father's black-and-white drawings have never been seen by any but the family. I am therefore all the more glad to give some of them here, reproduced by our best modern processes. Very few people have any idea of the labour and care that he expended on these drawings. Each one of them was to him a carefully thought-out picture, worthy of the best work that he could put into it; and I think it will be seen from the specimens here given that he did not overestimate the value of the art. He maintained, indeed, that the few men quite at the top of the tree, both in line and wash, 1'-86o3 BLACK-AND-WHITE WORK 359 were entitled to rank with the best exponents of oil and watercolour; and if he had lived I feel quite sure that, with his keen desire to encourage true Art, in whatever form displayed, we should i-n- time see workers in black-and-white admitted as freely to the honours of the Academy as are the line-engravers. Few and far between are those who could ever hope to achieve this distinction, but I have no hesitation in saying that infinitely better Art is to be found in Harper's Magazine, the Cenltry, Scribner's, our Art magazines, and the best illustrated books of the day (and now and then in the Graphic and the Illustrated London News)than in one-half the pictures that hang on the walls of the Royal Academy and other Art galleries. Look at the drawings of such men as Phil May, Caton Woodville, C. D. Gibson, E. A. Abbey, Alfred Parsons, Frederick Remington, E. Smedley, Reginald Cleaver, Archibald Thorburn, John Gulich, D. Hatherell, Frank Brangwyn, and half a dozen others of similar standing. Many of these are supremely excellent as works of Art; and yet they are not only unrecognised by the powers that be, but go for nothing in the market by comparison with hundreds of old engravings that have nothing but their antiquity and their rarity to recommend them. And why? Simply because they are not in fashion. No recognised connoisseur of Art has taken up black-and-white work with a view to a collection; and since few men dare to trust to their own judgment as buyers of Art works, fashion (too often but a passing phase of ignorance and vulgarity) controls the market. It may be said, perhaps, that as a black-and-white artist myself I am disposed to overrate the value of this class of work. My answer is that I have said here only what I have so often heard from my father- a man who touched every branch of the painter's art, who succeeded in all, and who knew the difficulties and relative values of each. In I860 he made a whole series of drawings for Anthony Trollope's novel Framley Parsonage- drawings afterwards sold to Mr. Plint, the dealer who, years before, had bought' his " Christ in the House of His Parents " besides illustrations for the Cornhill Magazine, and a considerable amount of work for Bradbury and Evans. And from this time onwards, down to I869, he was chiefly engaged in blackand-white work and water-colour drawings, under commissions from various publishers and picture dealers, including 360 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i86o Hurst and Blackett, Chapman and Hall, Bradbury and Evans, Smith and Elder, Dalziel Brothers, and Gambart. He also did a little work for the Illustrated London News and drawings for Punch, one of which is referred to in the last chapter, the works illustrated by him during this period including Trollope's novel, Orley Farm, and occasional numbers of the Cornhill Magazine, Good Words, London Society, etc. The money he received for these drawings was but a nominal recompense for the labour bestowed upon them; for, unless perfectly satisfied with the finished production, he would tear it up at once, even if he had spent whole days upon it, scamped work in any shape being an abomination in his eyes. It was a constant source of lament to him that, under the pressure of monetary needs, even first-rate men were sometimes compelled to turn out more work than they could possibly do with credit to themselves. He would notice this now and then in the illustrated literature of the day, and out would come the remark, " Another poor devil gone wrong for the sake of a few sovereigns! " He himself liked the work as an occasional change from oils; but knowing how little the pencil could make by comparison with the brush, he refused to be drawn into regular magazine work, which (not altogether without reason) Marie Corelli stigmatises as "the slough of despond." His best work of this sort, and one of the best examples of woodcutting, were to be seen in the series of drawings representing "The Parables of our Lord." They were engraved by the brothers Dalziel, and he made replicas of them in watercolour for a window that he afterwards presented to Kinnoull parish church in memory of my late brother George - to my mind one of the most beautiful windows in Great Britain. All the backgrounds to the parables were drawn from Nature at or around Bowerswell, and many of the landscapes can be easily recognised, having altered little since 1862. During this time, too, he seems to have done a great number of water-colours, most of them being either copies of, or designs for, his larger works. For these there was a constant demand, and the dealers worried him into painting no less than seven or eight water-colour replicas of "The Black Brunswicker" and "The Huguenot." He also made one or more copies of " The Ransom," " My First Sermon," "My Second Sermon," " The Minuet," "The Vale of Rest," I86o] A HOLIDAY 361 "Sir Isumbras," and "Swallow, Swallow, Flying South," nearly all of which were bought by either Gambart or Agnew. Indeed, if a complete collection of his watercolour and black-and-white works at this period could be got together, they would make, I venture to think, almost as interesting an exhibition as that of I897, in which scarcely one of them was included. In i860 he took the shooting of Kincraig, Inverness-shire, OLD WALL OF BALHOUSIE CASTLE, PERTH Used by Millais in his background of " James' Love " along with his friend Colonel Aitkin, and after some hesitation (as expressed in the following letter to his wife) he threw aside his work in the month of August, and hastened to join his friend in the North. " August 171h, i860. - I write this amongst a great gathering of men and ladies, one of whom is at this moment singing most beautifully. Mr. Mitchell (the clergyman who married William) is here, and Arnold and his wife. Miss Power is also here, and sings charmingly. Mrs. Cobb, too, 362 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I86I and her husband, in rifle-corps uniform, fresh from drill. The ladies are all working at needlework whilst the music is going on, and as I cannot talk I employ myself in writing. Arthur Coleridge brought his wife here this afternoon, and she appears to be quite charming. "I have just received yours, enclosing Aitkin's letter. I don't know but what I may yet come straight up to the shooting, and bring the copy I am working at, as I can finish it anywhere for the matter of that. I don't mean to say I would paint at the shooting-lodge, but would finish it afterwards at Bowerswell. I feel certain that no other man in my position would neglect his holiday; so, instead of grinding on, I shall have a fling at that place. The house appears roomy, and you could go with me. I am sick of hearing of everybody going to his shdoting. No one would enjoy it more than I, instead of having to stick to this beastly copying ['The Black Brunswicker'].. I feel a good deal better to-day, hearing of the sport that Aitkin is having. Please send me the 'Framley' manuscript, as I want to get all these drawings done and out of my hands." He took his holiday, and then, returning to Bowerswell, he worked hard at " The Poacher's Wife" and " The Ransom," and in the spring of I86I he went back to town, where he had engaged rooms at I30 Piccadilly, with a studio attached. From there he wrote to my mother: — " May 27/k, i86i. - I am sorry to hear that your mother is so ill.... Monckton Milnes came just now with a friend. He was charmed with the picture [' The Ransom '], and says that Stirling, of Keir, should have it; he himself is so enchanted with it that he will probably have it himself. I had a very pleasant dinner at the Leslies', Lady Waterford, Lady Mills, and many others there. On Wednesday I go to Epsom, to see the Derby, with Joseph Jopling [an artist and intimate friend]. "On Saturday I went to Tattersall's, to see the bettingroom and paddock, where I saw, among others, some friends of yours. Young S- [a boy from Perth, who had just come into a little money], with his betting-book in his hand, was quite surprised to see me there and, I thought, disconcerted, by the way he hurried off. Poor young fool, he will certainly bring about a speedy smash in such society as I saw him - being with Lord S-, men with millions, and the sharpest rogues in the world. RETURNS TO TOWN 363 "Jopling is staying with friends in the country, so I do not see much of him. I am alone here all day, and only occasionally disturbed by callers... Yesterday I went to Thackeray's house at Kensington, and it is beautiful'; and in the evening, after the Leslies, I went to the Cosmopolitan, and got home very, very late -or rather early. Fortunately, with all this dining out, I feel in the best of condition and spirits." He had now bought No. 7 Cornwall Place, South Kensington, which, when remodelled under the direction of his architect, Mr. Freake, he used as the town house of himself and his family from the winter of 1862 to 1878, when they finally took possession of the large house that he built at Palace Gate. "May 28th, 186. - Sir Coutts Lindsay, Lady Somers, and Mrs. Dalrymple have just been here, and were in ecstasies about the picture. Although I ask a big price for it, which the dealers are trying to beat down, I shall not give way an inch, as they are certain to resell it immediately to some nobleman's collection, and make an immense profit by it. Last evening I dined with Lord Lansdowne. We had a delightful dinner: everything most magnificent. The beautiful Lady Waterford was there, and I had a long talk with her. She is rather handsomer than when I saw her seven years ago - a little stouter, and certainly the noblestlooking woman I ever saw. She is coming to see my picture, but returns to her castle in Northumberland immediately. She asked after you. General Hamilton, too, who dined with us in York Terrace, was there. "I went afterwards to Captain Murray's, and to the Alhambra to see Leotard, a French gymnast, who flies through the air from swinging ropes —very extraordinary. To-morrow is the Derby, and to-day I have been working most successfully, having nearly finished the other illustration for Hurst and Blackett —one of the 'Orley Farm' ones -and the fourth one for Mr. Plint. My model, Miss Beale, was sitting until Sir Coutts Lindsay and his party came, and held in her arms a baby, which I had borrowed! I have heard nothing from Freake; but the studio is progressing. "Dalziel was here yesterday, and very anxious to get me to finish the drawings of the parables bv next year for the great exhibition, and I of course promised to do my best." 364 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I86I " May 30/h. - Yesterday morning, before going to the Derby, I called to see Lady Waterford and her drawings. She was so pleased, I think, for I found her drawings magnificent, so I could praise honestly. She was very kind and nice, and begged particularly to be remembered to you. " Yesterday at the Derby was the usual crowd and dust; WATER-COLOUR DESIGN FOR "THE RANSOM." 1862 but I only got a small headache this time, and slept it off in an hour or so, after which I got up and went to Lewis's Club, where he gave Jopling and myself something to eat. After that we went to Cremorne. One striking fact which greatly astonished me was the absence of intoxication. I never saw one man or woman drunk the whole day, and must have passed thousands upon thousands of people; nor did I see a single row either at the race I86I] "THE RANSOM" 365 course or the gardens, to which almost the whole company came straight from the course. The gardens were beautifully lit up with thousands of lamps, and the night was warm and lovely. Then there was dancing on the greensward -of course, amongst a certain class. Two splendid bands of music, and eating and drinking in every direction; yet not a single person drunk. I am very fresh this morning, and going on with the 'Orley Farm'illustrations. Jopling, too, is up, and beautiful in summer array. Last night, of course, I saw everybody, from every place I know- Perth men from their regiments, Stirling of Keir, Monckton Milnes, Leech, Thackeray, William, Jue (his wife), and the Hoares... "This evening I spend quietly with Dalziel, to look over proofs and talk the parables over, and on Saturday I have promised to go to Kingston and see my people, and perhaps row up the river, as they propose a picnic." "June 6t/, I86. - Plint has just been here and bought the picture of Mrs. Aitkin and John Lindsay, and I have promised to paint a small oil for him of Lucy Roberts. Plint gave X -- II50 for 'The Black Brunswicker,' * and some time ago gave him /iooo for 'The Royalist.' So much for X — telling me that he had lost by me! Now, when he comes, I will say nothing to lead him to suppose that I know all about it; but it puts me on my guard for the future." "The Ransom," however (his big picture), was not sold; so he went to Bowerswell at the beginning of August, and had some pleasant days, trout-fishing at Loch Leven with Leech and John Anderson, the minister of Kinnoull. Before closing this chapter it is necessary to say a few words about "The Ransom" and its subsequent history. Commenced with "Trust Me" in the autumn of i860, the picture was not completed till the spring of 1862. The subject is that of the detention of two maidens who had been captured during the Middle Ages. The girls are seen in the act of returning to their father, a black-bearded knight, who in turn has to present gold and gems for their release. The costumes in this picture were most carefully studied. " Most of them," says my mother, " were made by me, and I designed them from a book on costume lent by Lady Eastlake." She * When first sold to a dealer " The Black Brunswicker" fetched ~816. In May, I898, it was sold by the executors of the late James Renton for ~2,650. 366 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [186I then gives a few particulars as to the background and models. "The tapestry was the last part which was painted. It was done in the unfinished portion of the South Kensington Museum, where Mr. Smith, the decorator, hung it in position for the artist. Millais had great trouble with the knight. The head was taken from his friend Major Boothby, who gave him many sittings; but, at the last moment he considered the expression unsuitable, and so called in the services of a Mr. Miller. The figure of the knight he drew from a gigantic railway guard, appropriately named 'Strong,' who was afterwards crushed to death in Perth Station. The page was a handsome youth named Reid, and Major McBean, 92nd Highlanders, and a labourer sat for the guards. Both the girls were painted from one model, Miss Helen Petrie." CHAPTER X i86I-1867 A holiday in Sutherlandshire-" The Eve of St. Agnes "-Comfortless surroundings - Death of Thackeray -'His funeral -" My First Sermon "- Pictures of 1863- Paints Tom Taylor's son- Letter from Tom Taylor-" Esther"Gordon's yellow jacket- "The Romans Leaving Britain "''- Letter from Anne Thackeray Ritchie-"Waking" - In Scotland with Sir William Harcourt and Mr. Reginald Cholmondeley - Meeting with Dr. Livingstone- Livingstone in pursuit of salmon — Millais goes abroad with his wife, Sir William Harcourt, and Sir Henry Layard —He buys Michael Angelo's " Leda and the Swan" - Memorable evening at " Villa Spence " Adelina Patti as a dancer- Makes. the acquaintance of Liszt-They travel with Mario- "Waking" - The Callender shootings- Amusing letter from Sir William Harcourt- Letter to William Fenn - A deer drive in Glen Artney. HE autumn of I86i was spent in Sutherlandshire,. where, as I gather from his letters, Millais found great enjoyment, while fishing and shooting along with his friend Mike " Halliday. In August of that year they were staying at Lairg, from which he writes to my mother: - "We dined on Sunday at Rose Hall, and enjoyed it immensely; they were so kind. Lord and Lady Delamere were there, and he is a capital fellow. In the evening, after dinner, we drew blindfolded several subjects, and the' result was absurd, as you may imagine. We dine here again next Sunday. Both Holford and his wife were most kind, and expressed great regret that they could not give us beds.. Yesterday Mike and I shot all the day, but the ground is very inferior to Kincraig. Poor little man, he could n't walk the hillsides, and was done up so completely that he could n't shoot a bit. Halliday only shot three brace, which made in all seventeen brace and a half, all of which, by Mr. Holford's orders, is left to us. I send away a box' to you, and another to Kingston." In another letter he says:"I am almost sorry I sent you the grilse yesterday, for I killed a fine salmon this morning, Io lbs. weight. I hooked 367 368 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [ 862 it when far away from anyone, and had the fish on for more than half an hour without being able to make anybody hear my shouting. At last Mike caught sight of me waving my bonnet, and came to my assistance with the gaff, and after playing the fish until it was quite done, he succeeded in securing it. It was a beautiful clean salmon (not grilse) just up from the salt water. It struggled awfully, and took me down the river in the most gallant way. We have just returned from dining with the Holfords, who are indefatigable in their kindness and attention. I never experienced such unaffected kindness, and Mike finds the same. Poor little chap, he hasn't even risen a fish at all yet, except trout." The letter winds up with an injunction to practise croquet, which was all the rage just then. The later autumn days and the following winter were mainly devoted to painting " The Woman Looking for the Lost Piece of Money"- showing a female figure in the moonlight holding a lighted candle, with which she searches the floor. The picture unhappily came to an untimely end, but an engraving of it (made before it left the artist's hands) gives some idea of the striking effects of mingled moonlight and candle-light as depicted. In 1862 Millais gave the picture to Baron Marochetti in exchange for a marble bust of my mother by this famous sculptor, and one day the gas meter in the Baron's house in Onslow Square exploded, and the picture (frame and all) was shot through the window into the street, and completely destroyed. During the spring of 1862 he was hard at work on a portrait of Mr. Puxley, a hunting squire, and the little picture of " The White Cockade," in which a Highland lady is seen attaching the white badge of the Jacobites to her lover's cocked hat. My mother sat for this picture, and an excellent portrait of her at that time is preserved there. A Scotch friend, hearing by chance of the subject of the painting, was good enough to present her with one of the original cockades worn in the bonnets of Prince Charlie's followers- a badge now extremely rare. The summer of this year was an exceedingly busy one for the artist. He did an immense quantity of work for London Society, Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co., Macmillan, Chapman and Hall, Sampson Low and Co., Dalziel, and Bradbury and Evans, and something too for the IllustratedLondono News. "SWALLOW! SWALLOW!" 1864 From the water-colour in possession of Mrs. Stibbard By permission of Sir John Kelk I862] FISHING AND SHOOTING 37' In the Academy he exhibited "The Ransom" (sometimes called "The Hostage"), "Trust Me," ' The Parable of the Lost Piece of Money," and " Mrs. Charles Freeman." And, as a joyful prelude to his autumn holiday, another little olivebranch appeared on the scene in the person of my sister Carrie (now Mrs. Stuart-Wortley). August was now at hand, and with a light heart he fled away to his beloved Scotland, where he had taken care to secure beforehand what promised to afford excellent sport. First of all he went to the Helmsdale, the fishing of which he and his friend, Colonel Cholmondeley, had taken for that month. There, however, the fates favoured the fish rather than the fishermen, and at the end of the month he moved on to Inveran Inn, near Tain, where Mike Halliday and he had part of the river Shin for the month of September. Here another disappointment awaited him as to the fishing; but his letters show that in other respects the holiday was an enjoyable one. Writing to my mother on September 2nd, he says:"I arrived here yesterday morning at half-past five, and travelled all night, never getting a wink of sleep. However, when I had had a tub I felt all right. There was no bed for me anyhow. Brandreth was here, and left this morning with his wife, who came up from Dunrobin. He is a most kind fellow-took me out shooting all yesterday, and the result will come to you in the shape of a box of grouse. Mike took Mr. B.'s gun in the evening, and we got ten more brace, which made it a good day. Mr. B. has given me all his part of the river to fish in, besides the right to shoot with Mike on a moor fifteen or sixteen miles away from here; also to take three days on the moor immediately adjoining this inn, where we killed the birds yesterday. It is very fortunate, as the fishing is very bad this year. I went out last evening, after the shooting, and only rose one fish.... The Cholmondeleys were very sorry at my leaving, and were most kind. You may expect to see him in Perth about the i5th. Brandreth also gave me a mnagnifcent salmon-rod- insisted on my taking it - and supplied us with a lot of lights and tobacco. Leech is not here yet. Have you heard of him? The river is too low here now, strange to say, and last year it was too high." Towards the end of the season he took up his quarters at 372 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i862 Bowerswell; and with a view to the well-known picture, "My First Sermon," my sister Effie, then a child of five years, was selected as the model. She also sat two years later for the companion picture of "My Second Sermon," and from that time onwards all the children in turn were enlisted as models for different pictures. Later on in the autumn of I862 some lines in Keats' beautiful poem, "The Eve of St. Agnes," caught the fancy of the artist, inviting him to illustrate them on canvas; and this he determined to do at once. "Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast. Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees; Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one; Loosens her fragrant bodice; by degrees Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees: Half-hidden, like a mermaid in seaweed, Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees In fancy fair St. Agnes in her bed. But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled." But where was a suitable background to be found? The picture, as conceived by the artist, demanded an interior such as was not to be seen in Scotland, so far as he knew; but in the historic mansion of Knole Park was a room well known to him, and exactly suited to his purpose. So, coming South rather earlier than usual this year, he and my mother betook themselves to Sevenoaks, where, at a wayside hostelry, they remained throughout December. Knole was close by -a large house tenanted by an old caretaker -and, except the floor (then covered with modern parquetry), this wonderful old room had undergone no change whatever since the time of James I. The old furniture and fittings of solid silver were still there, the same old tapestry adorned the walls, and a death-like stillness pervaded the apartment - "a silence that might be felt" at the midnight hour when the moonlight was streaming in through the window and no fire was burning on the hearth. And yet that was the time when the picture must be painted - that and a few hours later - otherwise the exact direction of the moonbeams falling on the figure could not be caught. No wonder, then, that my father, though by no means a nervous man, was sensible of a high state of 1862] "THE EVE OF ST. AGNES" 373 tension while sitting at his work for three nights in succession amidst such weird and comfortless surroundings. My mother, too -for she it was who sat for the figure - was similarly affected, while her discomfort during those weary hours may be readily imagined. Think of the slender garments in which the figure is draped, the bodice unlaced, the room unheated; and this in the depth of winter! No wonder that she was accustomed to speak of it afterwards as the severest task she ever undermaking amends for all it cost to win it. The painter caught the spirit of the poet, and embodied it in his canvas. The finishing touches were done at Cromwell Place,* with the aid of a professional model, Miss Ford. My mot her says in her notes - "This picture was marvellously quickly executed. After three days j and a half at Knole and two days more at home, the work was co mplete, and highly finished. Theis. magnificent bed represented was NX that in which King James I. slept. It cost /3000, and the coverlet was a mass of gold thread and sETCH FOR",THE EVE OF sT. AGNES silver appliqu6 gimp and lace; the sheets were white silk, and the mattresses of padded cotton wool. "Millais' fingers got numb with the cold, but there was no time to be lost, as the private view day was drawing near. When we got back from Knole the figure of Madeline had to be altered; and when the work was exhibited the public thought the woman ugly, thin, and stiff. 'I cannot bear that woman with the gridiron,' said Frank Grant (Sir Francis Grant, P. R. A.), alluding to the vivid streams of moonlight on the floor; and Tom Taylor said,' Where on earth did you get that scraggy model, Millais?'" * Millais lit up his canvas with a bull's-eye lantern when painting this subject in London. He found that the light from even a full moon was not strong enough to throw, through a stained glass window, perceptible colour on any object, as Keats had supposed and described in his poem. 374 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I863 The picture, after passing successively through the hands of Mr. Charles Lucas and Mr. Leyland, is now in the possession of Mr. Val Prinsep, R.A. It was seen by Art lovers on the walls of South Kensington, and was amongst the works in the recent " Millais Exhibition " at Burlington House. An appreciative letter from Val Prinsep is of interest as showing what artists thought of this work. Writing to Millais he says:"It was a great pleasure to me, my dear old chap, to be able to purchase your picture. There is not an artist who has failed to urge me to do so. For the profession's sake I am glad your picture is in the hands of one of the craft, for it is essentially a painter's picture. After all, what do the public and the critics know about the matter? Nothing The worst is, they think they do, and hence comes the success of many a commonplace work and the comparative neglect of what is full of genius. I 've got the genius bit, and am delighted. Yours ever, "VAL PRINSEP." No sooner was it finished than, in execution of a commission from Mr. Marley, of Regent's Park, the artist set to work on a portrait of Mr. Henry Manners, now Marquis of Granby. Other pictures, too, followed in quick succession, notably " Suspense," " The Bridesmaid throwing the Lucky Slipper," and "The Wolf's Den," the last-named showing portraits of all the artist's elder children. For the rest, the year (1863) was one of mingled joy and sorrow. In September my brother Geoffroy was born; but a few months later the sudden death of Thackeray, the bright and genial novelist, cast a deep gloom over the household, both my father and mother being devotedly attached to him. They had noticed with distress his failing health and loss of appetite, when dining with them shortly before their annual migration to the North; but neither of them ever dreamt that this was the last time that they and he would meet. In a letter to my mother on Christmas Day my father wrote — "I am sure you will be dreadfully shocked, as I was, at the loss of poor Thackeray. I imagine, and hope truly, you will have heard of it before this reaches you. He was found dead by his servant in the morning, and of course the E99S ' S~HNOV 'IS J1O 3JA3 HHI, I863] DEATH OF THACKERAY 377 whole house is in a state of the utmost confusion and pain. They first sent to Charlie Collins and his wife, who went immediately, and have been almost constantly there ever since. I sent this morning to know how the mother and girls were, and called myself this afternoon; and they are suffering terribly, as you might expect. He was found lying back, with his arms over his head, as though in great pain. I shall hear more, of course. Everyone I meet is affected by his death. Nothing else is spoken of." And again, three days later: — "I go to-morrow with Walker, Prinsep, and Theodore Martin, to poor Thackeray's funeral -- Kensal Green Cemetery; half-past twelve. I send every day to ask after the mother and girls. They are dreadfully broken by the death. "My model is waiting, so I must leave off now. I made a beautiful little drawing of Lady Edwards' baby lying in the bassinet. Of course I had to idealise somewhat, as there was a look of pain in the face. "I had five men dining with me last night, and the conversation was entirely about the loss we have all sustained. Cayley, Doyle, Prinsep, Martineau, and Jopling were the party." In another letter, on December 3Ist, he added:"I went yesterday to the funeral, in Theodore Martin's carriage. It was a mournful scene, and badly managed. A crowd of women were there - from curiosity, I suppose - dressed in all colours; and round the grave scarlet and blue feathers shone out prominently! Indeed, the true mourners and friends could not get near, and intimate friends who were present had to be hustled into their places during the ceremony of interment. We all, of course, followed from the chapel, and by that time the grave was surrounded. There was a great lack of what is called 'high society,' which I was surprised at. None of that class, of whom he knew so many, were present. The painters were nearly all there - more even than the literary men. The review of his life and works you sent me is quite beautiful -just what it ought to be - I suppose by Dr. John Brown, who was a great friend." "My First Sermon" was exhibited this year in the Academy, and at the Academy banquet on May 3rd, when (according to a newspaper report now before me) the 378 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I864 Archbishop of Canterbury, in a graceful speech, referred to it as follows: "Still, Art has, and ever will have, a high and noble mission to fulfil. That man, I think, is little to be envied who can pass through these rooms and go forth without being in some sense a better and a happier man; if at least it be so (as I do believe it to be) that we feel ourselves the better and the happier when our hearts are enlarged as we sympathise with the joys and the sorrows of our fellow-men, faithfully delineated on the canvas; when our spirits are touched by the playfulness, the innocence, the purity, and may I not add (pointing to Millais' picture of 'My First Sermon') the piety of childhood." This little picture of Effie* was extremely popular. The artist himself was so pleased with it that, before going North in August of that year, he made an oil copy of it, doing the work from start to finish in two days! A truly marvellous achievement, considering that the copy displayed almost the same high finish as the original; but in those two days he worked incessantly from morning to night, never even breaking off for lunch in the middle of the day. Well might he say, as he did in a letter to my mother, " I never did anything in my life so well or so quickly." The copy was sold as soon as it was finished, and I see from an entry in my mother's book that he received.I80 for it. He was now, so far as I can judge, at the summit of his powers in point of both physical strength and technical skill, the force and rapidity of his execution being simply amazing. Leaving my mother at Bowerswell early in January, 1864, he returned to town, where, soon after his arrival, John Leech came to see him. As an old and intimate friend of Thackeray, Leech was distressed beyond measure by his death. He should never get over it, he said; and a month or two later his words gained a painful significance by his own death from heart disease. My father was constantly with him during the last stage of this terrible complaint, and never ceased to lament the loss of his old friend and companion. This year proved to be most prolific of all in point of work. Writing to my mother on January I3th, he said:"I will come and look out for a background for ' Moses.' * My First " and " My Second Sermon"' were both painted in the old church at Kingston-on-Thames, where Millais' parents resided. The old high-backed pews had not then been removed. 864.] 14 "MY SECOND SERMON" 379 I am just going to begin Effie sleeping in the pew. It is very dark, but enough light for drawing. Have done both 'Arabian Nights' drawings, and another (two since you left) illustration for Good Words. I missed my train to Trollope on Sunday, and had to take a hansom all the way to Waltham -two hours there, and two back, but I got there in time for dinner. " Hablot Brown is illustrating his new serial. Chapman is publishing it, and he is not pleased with the illustrating, and proposed to me to take it off his hands, but I declined.. Messrs. C. and H. gave him so much more for his novel that they wished to save in the illustrations, and now Trollope is desirous of foregoing his extra price to have it done by me." " Effie sleeping in the pew" was, as indicated above, the subject of "My Second Sermon," in which, the novelty of the situation having worn off, the child is seen fast asleep, being overcome by the heat of the church, and probably by the soporific influence of the pulpit. The Archbishop of Canterbury referred also to this work in his speech at the Academy banquet in 1865. According to the newspapers of the period his words were:"I would say for myself that I always desire to derive profit as well as pleasure from my visits to these rooms. On the present occasion I have learnt a very wholesome lesson, which may be usefully studied, not by myself alone, but by those of my right reverend brethren also who surround me. I see a little lady there (pointing to Mr. Millais' picture of a child asleep in church, entitled 'My Second Sermon'), who, though all unconscious whom she has been addressing, and the homily she has been reading to us during the last three hours, has in truth, by the eloquence of her silent slumber, given us a warning of the evil of lengthy sermons and drowsy discourses. Sorry indeed should I be to disturb that sweet and peaceful slumber, but I beg that when she does awake she may be informed who they are who have pointed the moral of her story, have drawn the true inference from the change that has passed over her since she has heard her 'first sermon,' and have resolved to profit by the lecture she has thus delivered to them." "Leisure hours," a picture combining the portraits of Mr. John Pender's two daughters, was next taken up. Then came "Charlie is My Darling," a picture for which Lady Pallisser sat, and to which a little romance is attached. Whilst 380 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [1864 Millais was at work on this picture Sir William Pallisser visited the studio, where he was much struck with the face of the lady as portrayed. He begged for and obtained an "'MY SECOND SERMON." 1863 By permission of H. Graves and Son introduction, and afterwards falling deeply in love with one another, she became Lady Pallisser. That work, too, was exhibited this year, and is now in the possession of an old friend of my father's, Mr. James Reiss. An illustration in "LEISURE HOURS." z864 By permssion of Lady des Vozzx i864] THE ZENITH OF HIS POWER 383 oils of Tennyson's charming "Swallow, Swallow, Flying South," was also in hand now, for which my mother's sister, Alice Gray (now Mrs. Stibbard) sat; but the picture, though finished in time for the Academy, was not exhibited till the following year. A portrait of Harold, son of the Dowager Countess of Winchelsea, was also painted this year, and satisfied with the work already done, Millais went off in July to the Helmsdale to try his luck once more as a fisherman. Of his life there, and the sport he met with, I have unfortunately no record, as, my mother being with him, no letters passed between them. It was in the late autumn of 1864 that the artist completed an excellent portrait of Wyclif Taylor, son of his friend Tom Taylor, of Punch fame -a portrait that seems to have given great satisfaction to the parents. From Tom Taylor. 8 RICHMOND TERRACE, WHITEHALL, S. W., " December 27th, 1864. "MY DEAR MILLAIS, - I cannot allow the day to pass without thanking you for your beautiful portrait of our boy. It is an exquisite picture of a child, and a perfect likeness. Both his mother and myself feel that you have given us a quite inimitable treasure, which, long years hence, will enable us to recall what our boy was at the age when childhood is loveliest and finest. Should we lose him- which Heaven avert -the picture will be more precious still. " It seems to us the sweetest picture of a child even you have painted. If you would like to have it exhibited, I need not say it is at your service for the purpose. " With renewed thanks, and all the best wishes of the season for you and yours, "Believe me, ever gratefully yours, "TOM TAYLOR. "P.S. -I send you my Christmas gift in return, however inadequate. The...Ballad Book, which owes so much to your pencil." I have suggested that in point of technical skill Millais attained the zenith of his power in I864, but the fact is too plain to be overlooked, that I865 marked a distinct advance 384 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i865 in the direction of larger and more important pictures, and greater breadth of treatment. His first picture this year was "The Evil One Sowing Tares"; and then came " Esther" and " The Romans Leaving Britain," both of which present a fulness of power and facility of expression such as he had never before displayed, and this too without any sacrifice of the high finish that characterised his earlier works. In these pictures he seems to have accomplished with a single dash of the brush effects that, in former years, he attained only by hours of hard work. Miss Susan Ann Mackenzie, sister of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, sat for the principal figure in " Esther." A lady kindly furnishes me with the following note: "The robe thrown over the shoulders of 'Esther' was General Gordon's ' Yellow Jacket.' * In this 'Yellow Jacket' General Gordon sat to Valentine Prinsep, R.A., for the portrait for the Royal Engineers' mess-room at Chatham. Millais so admired this splendid piece of brocade that he dressed Miss Muir Mackenzie in it, but turning it inside out, so as to have broader masses of colour. With her fine hair unbound, and a royal crown in her hand, she sat for 'Queen Esther.' The picture was bought from a dealer by my husband, and it has since passed to Mr. Alex. Henderson with the rest of his collection." Millais was painting Miss Mackenzie's head when the Yellow Jacket was brought in, and, as he draped it on her, he said: "There! That is my idea of Queen Esther; you must let me paint you like that." The subject of "The Romans leaving Britain" is one which had always had a great attraction for Millais. We see here, as Mr. Stephens says, "the parting between a Roman legionary and his British mistress. They are placed on a cliff-path overlooking the sea, where a large galley is waiting for the soldier. He kneels at the woman's feet, with his arms clasped about her body; his face, though unhelmeted, is hidden from us in her breast; her hands are upon his shoulders, and she looks steadfastly, with a passionate, eager, savage stare upon the melancholy waste of the grey and restless sea." * "At the end of the Taeping Rebellion, and when Gordon gave up the command of the ' ever-victorious army,' the Chinese Government tried to offer him rewards. He would take nothing but the rank of Ti-Tu, or Field Marshal, and the 'rare and high dignity of the YellowJacket.'" - BOULGER'S Lzfe of Gordon, vol. i. p. 122. I865] "WAKING" 385 The sentiment and pathos of this picture were much admired, and soon after the close of the Exhibition (1865) Millais received the following interesting letter from Miss Anne Thackeray, daughter of the novelist before referred to, written from the home of the Tennysons at Freshwater, Isle of Wight:"I thought of you one day last week when we took a walk with Tennyson and came to some cliffs, a sweep of sand, and the sea; and I almost expected to see poor Boadicea up on the cliff, with her passionate eyes. I heard Mr. Watts and Mr. Prinsep looking for her somewhere else, but I am sure mine was on the cliff. Mr. Watts has been painting Hallam and Lionel Tennyson. We hear him when we wake, playing his fiddle in the early morning. They are all so kind to us that we do not know how to be grateful enough. We have had all sorts of stray folk. Jowett and the Dean of Christchurch, and cousins without number. It has been very pleasant and sunshiny, and we feel as if we should like to live on here in lodgings all the rest of our lives. Last night 'King Alfred' read out'Maude.' It was like beautiful harmonious thunder and lightning.... I cannot help longing to know the fate of ' Esther'.... after she went in through the curtains." The daughter of Scott Russell (the engineer of the Great Eastern) sat for the British maiden " Boadicea," and the picture ultimately became the property of Sir Lowthian Bell. The background was painted down at Truro in Cornwall, where for a week Millais was the guest of Bishop Phillpotts at Porthwidden. At this time he had some idea of painting one of the closing scenes in the life of Mary Queen of Scots, and with a view to this he exchanged several letters with Froude, the historian, who kindly gave him all the information in his power. His letters, however, went to prove that the incident the artist had in mind had no foundation in fact, so the idea was at once abandoned. In July he commenced the picture known as "Waking" -a portrait of my sister Mary sitting up in bed -and was getting well on with it when his little model showed signs of illness that compelled him to leave off for a time. It was finished, however, later on, and is now in the collection of Mr. Philip Harter, of Leamington. A bed, with all its accessories, is not commonly a thing of beauty, but in this 1-25 386 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i865 case the artist made it so, the high finish of the still-life adding greatly to the general effect. Writing to my mother on the 29th of this month, he says: -" I am working very hard. Have commenced the duplicates of 'Esther,' and commence the Romans to-day. 'Joan of Arc'is gone, and I am hourly expecting Agnew to send for Alice [' Swallow, Swallow ']." On August I2th he and his friend Reginald Cholmondeley went off to the North -this time to Argyle, where Sir William Harcourt had taken a shooting called Dalhenna, amongst the lovely hills near Inverary. The great leader of the Liberals proved a most admirable host, and many are the good stories told of the jovial times the three friends had together. How Millais enjoyed it may be gathered from the following letters to his wife, all dated in August,, I866. In the first he says:"Harcourt and I shot twenty-three brace yesterday in a frightful sun, and enjoyed the day very much. Cholmondeley is not well (knocked up by the heat), so he didn't accompany us. H. is sending all the birds to England, and we don't like to have birds for ourselves. The cuisine is like that of a good club. His cook is here and manservant, and the comfort is great - altogether delightful and the grapes and peaches were thoroughly appreciated. The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland left yesterday. She looked so pretty at luncheon on Sunday. We have a great deal of laughing. To-day we are going to fish in Loch Fyne for Lythe, which afford good sport; and to-morrow we shoot again. Cholmondeley has his keeper and dogs with him. H. has a kilted keeper of his own, besides the ponies for the hill with saddlebags. We are going to visit the islands in a yacht, as the rivers are too dry for fishing salmon. " I have been unusually well since coming here, and very merry. Lord Lorne is a very nice pleasant fellow, and all the family are kindly, and as soon as the Duke returns we are to dine there. Our cottage is such a pretty spot - roses and convolvulus and honeysuckle over the porch, and a swallow feeding her young within reach of our hands." Of these Dalhenna days Millais loved to recall an amusing incident, the hero being one of the three shooters, who shall be nameless. One evening during a casual stroll about the domain, the sportsman spied a magnificent "horned beast' "THE ROMANS LEAVING BRITAIN." i865 By permission of Sir Lothian Bell 1865] LETTER TO HIS WIFE 389 grazing peacefully on their little hill. In the gloaming it loomed up as a stag of fine proportions; and without pausing to examine it through a glass, he rushed into the house, and, seizing a rifle, advanced upon his quarry with all the stealth and cunning of an accomplished stalker. The crucial moment came at last. His finger was on the trigger, and the death of the animal a certainty, when a raucous Highland voice bellowed in his ear, " Ye 're no gaen to shute the meenister's goat, are ye?" Tableau! In a second letter to my mother he says: " Harcourt is having a new grate put into his kitchen, to soften his cook. We have come in the dog-cart here for the day, taking boat at Cladich and leaving it almost immediately in terror, from the unsafeness of the boat in heavy waves. We walked on here, and H. at once let go a storm of invective against the landlady and the waiter, both being so supremely indifferent about our custom, that we had great difficulty in assuaging our appetites. After long suffering we obtained only very tough chops and herrings. We return to-morrow and shoot again on Saturday. To-day we drove through what the natives call the 'Duke's policies,' and met the great man himself, who was all smiles and politeness. " I will return directly the fortnight is out, but not before, as H. looks on me as his mainstay in shooting, Cholmondeley not. being well and avoiding the heavy work on the moor. The weather has been unendurably hot, but I thrive in it, and would be happy but for the midges, which nearly destroy all my pleasure. Harcourt is going to make out a plan for our tour abroad, as he knows all the parts we intend visiting. Outside has been a dreadful boy-German band playing for two hours, but now they have left off with ' God Save the Queen'; while just above us a duet has commenced, by two young ladies -' Masaniello.' "We have killed comparatively little game, but enough to make it pleasant, and I expect plenty of black game. Rabbits are abundant, and no one could be more kind and jolly than Harcourt. " I like to hear from some of you every day, that you are all well; and after this fling I will return and work like a Trojan, before going South. I would like, if possible, to paint the firs at Kinnoull as a background, besides the copies." In his next letter he describes his meeting with Dr. Livingstone, of whom he saw a good deal during the rest 390 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I865 of his stay at Dalhenna. After this he frequently dined at the Castle, and had long and interesting talks with the famous explorer, who used in the evening to amuse the Duke's children with his wonderful tales of Africa, then a terra incognita. He writes: - " On Friday we returned to Loch Awe, and near Inverary found Lord Archibald Campbell and another younger brother catching salmon for the amusement of Dr. Livingstone, who is at the Castle. We were introduced, and I had a chat with the Doctor. They caught salmon in a poaching way with lead and hooks attached, which sank amongst the imprisoned fish, who are in pools from which they cannot get out. The same afternoon the Duchess called with a carriage full of pretty children, and asked us to dine, which we did after killing twenty-eight brace on the hill. There was no one staying at the Castle but Livingstone, but the party was large enough, as there are sons and tutors in abundance. In the evening we played billiards, and at tea drew out the African traveller, who is shy and not very communicative. To-morrow we shoot again, and I think of returning on Wednesday. The black game shooting commenced yesterday and I killed two, and this week we shall beat the low hills for them.... I am anxious to return now and get on with my work; but having promised to stay a fortnight, I stay that time." In September he rejoined his family at Bowerswell, and after working for a month on " The Minuet " (a picture for which my sister Effie posed as the principal figure, my Aunt Alice sitting at the piano in the background), he and his wife and Sir William Harcourt made a tour on the Continent, travelling through Switzerland to Florence, where they were fortunate enough to meet their friends Sir Henry Layard and Lord and Lady Arthur Russell. Layard, the famous archaeologist, was born in Florence, and Italy was an open book to him. He was, moreover, a most charming companion, and under his guidance my father was enabled to see all the best Art collections in the city, including the treasures left by the Prince Galli, who had recently died. He was the last of his race, and had bequeathed all his paintings and pieces of sculpture to the hospital of Florence, including the marble statue of Leda and the Swan, by Michael Angelo, a work of Art which had been in the possession of the Galli family for over 300 years. This statue Sir Henry strongly advised ow........................................................................................ i865] MEETS ADELINA PATTI 391 Millais to buy at any price, saying that, if he did not do so, he would buy it himself for his friend Lord Wimborne, although he had no commission to do so. It was probably the last occasion, he said, on which a genuine work by Michael Angelo would be for sale, as the Italian Government were then about to put in force an Act prohibiting the removal from the country of great and well-known works of Art. Millais, therefore, attended the sale and purchased the " Leda," which was at once packed and sent off to London. A most fortunate thing for him, for the very next day came a missive from the Russian Government requesting the Italian Government to buy the "Leda" for them at any price, and the latter were not too well pleased when they heard that it was already on its way to England. One evening my father and mother were invited to dine with a Mr. Spence at the Villa Spence - a house that formerly belonged to the Medicis, and is now one of the show places in Florence, with its exquisite gardens and wonderful underground chapel. They did not know whom they were to meet, but on arriving there they found amongst the guests Mario, Grisi and her three daughters, as well as Adelina and Carlotta Patti, and their brother-in-law Strakosch - altogether a dinner-party of geniuses. But geniuses enjoy themselves very much like other people. They told each other all the best stories they could think of in connection with their public lives, and after dinner Strakosch played, and Millais danced nearly the whole evening with Adelina Patti, who proved herself almost as good a waltzer as a vocalist. They met again at some state function in London about a year before his death, when she recalled the happy time they had spent that evening at the Villa Spence. From Florence, accompanied by their friends, they visited Bologna and Venice, where they stayed with Mr. Rawdon Brown in his palace on the Grand Canal. Then to Rome, where they had to undergo the delights of fumigation by sulphur, and were nearly suffocated; for this was in the days of Cardinal Antonelli, when the fear of the plague was at its height. Here, as at Florence, Sir Henry Layard again acted as their guide to the Art treasures of the city, and Lord Arthur Russell took them into the Vatican to see the Pope, Pius IX., whom my mother used to describe as a very nice, benevolentlooking old gentleman. He was dressed all in white, with a black biretta, and acknowledged their salutations as he passed. 392 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [I865 Almost immediately after he had passed out, the Abbe Liszt came into the room, and was presented by the British Ambassador to my father and mother. Liszt at once struck up a conversation with my mother, to the great mortification of her husband, who was most anxious to talk to him, but could not speak a word of any other language than his own. After bidding good-bye to their friends in Rome, Millais and his wife went on alone to Pisa, to see Sir Charles Eastlake, P. R.A., who was then on his death-bed. Leghorn was now their aim, and after visiting several other places on their way, they arrived there at midnight in a way they did not anticipate. About ten miles from their destination the railway engine broke down, and there was nothing for it but to finish their journey as they did, in a country cart, sitting on the top of their luggage. There, however, they had the good luck to fall in with Mario again, who afterwards took ship with them for Genoa, where, with the aid of despatches, he helped them through the intricacies of the custom-house-a very real service in those red-tape days. The splendid Vandykes of Genoa were an immense pleasure to my father, but I never heard him express a wish to see any other masterpieces in the foreign galleries except the series of pictures by Velasquez in Madrid, for he already knew the Paris and Hague galleries, and loathed travelling ill any form. And now their faces were set towards England, home, and duty; and as there was no railway in those days along the Riviera, they took the " diligence" all the way to Marseilles and from there home by sea. "Sleeping," "Waking," and "The Minuet," the three pictures which Millais exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1867, may certainly be classed amongst the specimens of his later Pre-Raphaelite manner, of which the "Vale of Rest" was the first example. It would seem, therefore, that just for this one year he returned to his old love, before the production of his broader works of " Jephtha" and " Rosalind and Celia," both commenced in 1867. These three pictures were exact portraits of my sisters Carrie, Mary, and Effie, and (as I have often heard from those who knew them from their infancy) were not idealised in the slightest degree. The art of the painter was exercised only in seizing upon the beauty of a particular child at a certain moment, and transferring it to his canvas. That was not idealising, but simply catching the child at its very best. " SLEEPING." i866 By permission of H. Graves and Son ,866] A SLEEPY MODEL 395 None of the three little girls ever enjoyed sitting for their portraits. As one of them expressed herself at the time, " It was so horrid, just after breakfast, to be taken upstairs and undressed again, to be put to bed in the studio." When tired of gazing seraphically upwards she would wait till my father was not looking, and then kick all the bedclothes off, perhaps just as he was painting a particular fold -a trick which the artist never seemed to appreciate. The idea for "Sleeping " was suggested by seeing my sister Carrie, then a very little girl, fast asleep the morning after a children's party. Millais went to the nursery to look for the child, and found the French maid, Berthe, sewing beside the bed, waiting for her charge to wake up; and when sitting for this picture the little model used often to go to sleep in real earnest. My sister Mary tells the following story about " Waking." Being left alone for a few minutes during the painting of this picture, she slipped out of bed and crept up to the table where the palettes and brushes were left; and then, taking a good brushful of paint and reaching as high as possible, proceeded to embellish the lower part of the work with some beautiful brown streaks. Presently she heard her father returning, and bolted back to bed. Foreseeing that in another minute he would discover the mischief, she wisely hastened to explain that she had tried to help him in his work by painting for him the brown floor that she knew he intended. Poor Millais turned in a desperate fright to his picture, and saw the harm that had been done, but with his characteristic sympathy with children he never said a word of reproach to little Mary, seeing that she had really meant to help. During 1865 and I866 he made water-colour copies of "Ophelia " and " The Huguenot," " The Black Brunswicker," "The Minuet," "Swallow, Swallow," and "The Evil One Sowing Tares," and copies in oil of " Esther" and "The Romans "; also two oil pictures, one of which was a portrait of a Miss Davidson, and the other a small one of Effie as "Little Red Riding Hood." From Sir William Cunliffe Brooks the shootings of Callander and a small part of Glen Artney were taken in I866. This was a grouse shooting, but now and then a stag came on to the ground. Millais got three, and then a fourth made its appearance, and returned again and again to the ground - one of the grandest stags ever seen in that 396 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i866 neighbourhood. My father was of course keen for a shot, but he happened to know this stag, having spied it on several occasions on the borders of the neighbouring forest rented by Sir William, and being on most friendly terms with the owner, he let it go. Afterwards, in the course of conversation, Sir William expressed his anxiety to shoot this particular stag, but added (as any true sportsman would), " If he is anywhere about your march you had better kill him." Days went by, and the end of the season was approaching, when one evening Millais espied the great stag feeding on his ground about fifty yards from the march. Now was his chance -his last chance of a shot at such a monarch as this. He was excited beyond measure, and his stalker was even more elated, for (as unfortunately sometimes happens) there was intense rivalry and bitterness between him, a man of small pretence, and the head stalker at Glen Artney, who was a tremendous swell in his own conceit. Then the stalk began, and just as the quarry crossed the march a shot from Millais' rifle laid him dead. At that moment, to the astonishment of my father, who had seen nobody else about, up rose Sir William and his stalker, who had been after the same game. The stag was therefore carted off to Glen Artney, and Sir William being satisfied with my father's explanation, the two remained as good friends as ever. After slaying this noble hart, he could not refrain from exulting over his success in a wild letter to his friend Sir William Harcourt, who replied as follows:From Sir W. V. Harcourt. " STUDLEY ROYAL, RIPON, "October 3rd, i866. " M DEAR MILLAIS, - I received your insane letter, from which I gather that you are under the impression that you have killed a stag. Poor fellow, I pity your delusion. I hope the time is now come when I can break to you the painful truth. Your wife, who (as I have always told you) alone makes it possible for you to exist, observing how the disappointment of your repeated failures was telling on your health and on your intellect, arranged with the keepers for placing in a proper position a wooden stag constructed like that of... You were conducted unsuspectingly to the spot and fired at the dummy. In the excitement of the moment I866] DEER-STALKING 397 you were carried off by the gillie, so that you did not discern the cheat, and believed you had really slain a 'hart of grease.' Poor fellow, I know better; and indeed your portrait of the stag sitting up smiling, with a head as big as a church door on his shoulders, tells its own tale. I give Mrs. M. great credit on this, as on all other occasions, for her management of you. I am happy to hear that the result of the pious fraud has been to restore you to equanimity and comparative sanity, and I hope by the time I see you again you may be wholly restored.... " Pray remember me to Mrs. M. " Yours ever, " W. V. HARCOURT. " I see that, in order to keep up the delusion, puffs of your performance have been inserted in all the papers." There are some fortunate beings in this world who have never missed a stag, and never can or will; but Millais was not one of these. In the following letter to his friend Mr. W. W. Fenn (written during his tenancy of Callander), he describes faithfully and amusingly the hardships and disappointments of deer-stalking:To Mr. W. W. Fenn. "CALLANDER, N.B., "Sunday, October 7lh, i866. "DEAR FENN, - My wife and eldest daughter have gone to the Free Kirk; and that I may do as good a work, I send you a line, albeit I am aching in all my limbs from having crawled over stony impediments all yesterday, in pursuit of ye suspicious stag. You know the position of all-fours which fathers assume for the accommodation of their boys, in the privacy of domestic life, and you can conceive how unsuited the hands and knees are to make comfortable progress over cutting slate and knobbly flint, and will understand how my legs are like unto the pear of over-ripeness. " I had two shots, the first of which I ought to have killed, and I shall never forget the tail-between-legs dejection of that moment when the animal, instead of biting the dust, kicked it up viciously into my face. After more pipes and whiskey than was good for me, we toiled on again, and a 398 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS [i866 second time viewed some deer, and repeated the toilsome crawling I have referred to. Enough! I missed that too, and rode home on our pony, which must from my soured temper have known it too. I tooled him along, heedless of the dangers of the road, until the gladdening lights of home flickered through the dining-room window. Mike is not a sympathising creature under these circumstances, being thoroughly convinced that a cockchafer's shoulder ought to be hit flying at a thousand yards; so, after the never-failing pleasure of the table, I retired, to dream of more stomach perambulations up and down precipices of burning ploughshares, the demons of the forest laughing at my ineffectual efforts to hit the mastodon of the prairies at fifteen yards distance. You may depend upon it, roach-fishing in a punt is the thing after all. When you don't excite the pity and contempt of your keeper, what boots it if you don't strike your roach? (probably naught but the float of porcupine is aware of it), but when you proclaim to the mountains, yea, even to the towns adjoining thereto, that you have fired at the monarch of the glen, how can you face the virgins and pipers who come up from the village to crown you with bog-myrtle, and exalt your stag's horn through the streets rejoicing? Every shot fired in the forest is known to be at a stag or hind, 'And the shepherd listening, kens well That the monarch of the glen, fell, Howsomever, if it ends well, As happens rarely, And the highland laddie breechless, Hears the shot, and stands quite speechless, Etc., etc., etc.' This inspiration comes from 'The Lady of Shalott.' I think in my old age I must betake myself to the chase of the gaudy butterfly with net of green, gaffing with the domestic bodkin. There's the stag-beetle, anyhow, and the salmon-fly; and what can exceed the danger of following the pool-loving dragon-fly? "All gone to Callander - to the kirk - and the wife will return presently, seriously inclined; so will I cast off this skin of frivolity. You must forgive me for being a boy still, and a little wild after yesterday's excitement. Michael returns in a day or two, and we shall very shortly leave this for a short stay at Perth, and then home to sit under the trophy " WAKING." i866 By permission of H. Graves and Son I866] A DEER DRIVE 401 of my own antlers. On the whole, the stay here has been pleasant, in spite of a nearly perpetual rain, which (distilled through peat-bog) has dyed my poor feet a sweet cinnamon brown like the Lascar crossing-sweepers. "You will hear from Stephen Lewis his adventures, which I believe he will narrate to his customers seated all around him in Turkish shawls, in the manner of the ' Arabian Nights.' " How Arthur is ever to hold his own after the prowess of Stephen remains to be seen; but - I would n't be Arthur. A strong smell of roast mutton calls me away, and I think your mother will have enough work in deciphering this. "Remember me very kindly to her, and tell her, tell her, that when I return, I come to thee! "Very sincerely yours, "J. EVERETT MILLAIS. "I have n't uncorked a tube or moistened a brush, but I hope the hand has n't lost its cunning." At the end of the season my father and mother spent a week with Sir William Cunliffe Brooks at Drummond Castle, which he rented from Lady Willoughby de Eresby, a place which, in point of situation and entourage, has no superior in Great Britain; indeed, it would be impossible to imagine more lovely surroundings. The old castle stands on an eminence in a park in which all the natural beauties of wood and lake are enhanced by floral and arboreal gems from foreign lands. Wild fowl of various sorts adorn the lakes, and herds of half-wild fallow-deer roam through the park, whilst up in the great wood of Torlum may in autumn be heard the voices of the big wood stags. The sanctuary in Glen Artney Forest had remained untouched since the visit of the Queen and Prince Consort in I845, and now, as the deer were becoming too numerous, Sir William decided on a drive. Three rifles were posted on a high ridge above the sanctuary, and over a thousand deer came up by three separate passes. Six or seven of the best were killed, and of the survivors about seven hundred made their way into the next corrie, within ten yards of the ladies who had gathered there to see what they could of the sport. My mother used to describe this as the finest sight of the kind she had ever witnessed. I 26 CHAPTER XI HOLMAN HUNT A great friendship, and a spur to noble ambition- Cairo in 1854- The donkey and the buffalo - A human parallel - The Jewish model, a shy bird - The difficulties and dangers of life in and around Jerusalem in 1854 -Adventure at the Brook Kerith - Reflections on life - Millais must put forth all his strengthA final tribute. F ROM what has been already said, it will be seen how close and intimate was the friendship between Holman Hunt and Millais. They were friends together in early youth, and together they fought and conquered the Philistines in the days when Pre-Raphaelitism was attacked on every side; and though for many years (from 1867 to I880) they saw but little of each other, owing to Hunt's long residence abroad, they kept up a continuous correspondence, the following portions of which (interesting from many points of view) the writer kindly allows me to embody in these pages. It is not for me to sing the praises of this distinguished artist, whose works are reverenced of all who know what high Art means (I am sure he would not thank me if I did); but this at least I may say, that no man had ever a firmer or a truer friend than my father found in Hunt, and that his friendship was reciprocated with equal warmth of heart. The fame of the one was ever dear to the other, and as to Hunt, so far was he from any sense of jealousy, that he never lost an opportunity for urging his friend to put forth all his powers whenever any great exhibition was on foot either at home or abroad. " The usual Liberal whip," my father would playfully remark, when one of these missives came by post; and seldom, if ever, did he fail to respond to the appeal. The letters proclaim the man-letters full of thought, of keen but kindly criticism, and enlivened here and there with touches of quaint humour; but voluminous and interesting as they are, I must restrict my selection to the narrowest limits. 402 HOLMAN HUNT 4o3 Here are a few extracts from letters during his first visit to the East in I854. Writing from Cairo in March of that year, he says: - " The "THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER" By permnssion ofJ. S. Vir/tze and Co. country is very rich and attractive, but I am inclined to mislike it on that account, for I have no patience with the Fates when they tempt me to become a paysagiste. The Pyramids in themselves are extremely ugly blocks, arranged 404 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS with imposing but unpicturesque taste. Being so close at hand, it is difficult to refuse making a sketch of them. With some effect and circumstance to satisfy the spectator's expectation and the charm of past history, it might be possible to gather a degree of poetical atmosphere to repay the patience one would expend; but I would rather give the time otherwise. Their only association that I value is that Joseph, Moses, and Jesus must have looked upon them. There are palm trees which attract my passing admiration. Without these, in places, one might as well sketch in Hackney Marsh.... I find a good deal of difficulty in living in quiet here, for there are four or five other Englishmen in the hotel, some of them very pleasant fellows; but I want solitude for my work, and it is impossible to feel secluded enough even when is away. When he is present, serious devotion to thought is often shattered with intolerable and exasperating practical jokes, and by his own unbounded risibility at the same.... I hear no news here but what hoarse-throated donkeys shout. These loquacious brutes are the only steeds one can get here without purchasing a horse, so I do not enjoy the luxury of following the hounds as you do. Appended you see an example of the ordinary load an ass has to carry in this country. They are themselves veritably one of the burdens of Cairo. One is never free for a second from their wanton braying. When you are talking with a friend in the street, or in the bazaar making a bargain, you are moved to excusable exasperation fifty times in an hour by the spasmodic trumpeting of some donkey who lifts up his voice close to the small of your back, or in front of you. In face of our hotel there are several animals tied up under the trees -fastened by the horns and legs. In a particular pen there is a small menage of a domestic character, but unfortunately it is not a happy family, the poor buffalo-cow of the party being evidently exhausted with listening to her near neighbour the jackass. The cow's original disposition is of the utmost and most admirable patience, but even vaccine nature has its limits, and our cow, soft-eyed and beautiful as she is, cannot refrain from remonstrating when her neighbour's refrain has been too frequent and (apparently) too personal. You should have seen her the other morning. She had patiently listened to his complete discourse some fifty times; but when he cleared his throat to give out the text once more, she waived her politeness so far as to indicate HOLMAN HUNT 405 that she had heard all that before. The donkey on his part, however, persisted. He evidently thought such an excellent homily could not be heard too often. Buffalo turned to retire, evidently with a different conviction, but her tether checked her retreat. She was infuriated at this discovery, and turned round upon the braying beast with her butting head, as if she would make him swallow his words once for all. But here the trial came. She could not reach him, and so he could not be turned from his purpose. After a moment's pause he took up his broken argument again, and in a posture better suited to the new position of the refractory member of his audience, until at last he wound up, I triumphantly glorying in her defeat and complete resignation. I feel ofttimes like that poor cow, and cherish an un- > poor cow and cherish an un- SKETCH FOR " THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD disguised hatred of the whole SAMARITAN." 1857 braying race." "Jerusalem, September 5/t, I854.-It is evident that it will be impossible to get my present picture done for next year. I go every Friday and Saturday and on feast days or days of humiliation to the synagogue, to see the Jews worship. I also take every opportunity to get introduced to them in their homes. They are polite, and I can study their characteristic gestures and aspects; but for special attendance at my house I can scarcely get them at all. When by the exercise of great interest one is brought, he looks about like a scared bird, and if he sees any piece of carpentry-a window sash, or a border of a panel - that looks in his suspicious eyes like a cross, away he flies, never to come back any more. My landlord, a converted Jew, who has journeymen-tailors under him, has brought me one or two, but even these get advised not to repeat their sittings, and thus my subject-picture is in the most unsatisfactory, higgledy-piggledy state, with many disjointed bits begun and not completed. The Rabbis keep up the bitterness by excommunicating all who come to my house, for they suspect me to be a missionary in disguise... "You could not conceive the possibility of men being so 406 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS fanatical and rancorous as the Fellahs and Arabs of this place. The tame men in the city are in a degree polite to Europeans (with what degree of sincerity I don't know), but "THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN" By iermission off. S. Virtue and Co. out of the gates, away from the shadow of our firm English Consul, no Briton would be safe, but for the probability that his coat has a good pistol or two in the pockets which he is ready to use. With the chance of escaping detection, they would shoot anyone for the spoil they might get." "THE EVIL ONE SOWING TARES " Byjfermission of Mr. E. OfL Denny HOLMAN HUNT 409' He had proof enough of this at the Brook Kerith, to get to which he had to descend a steep cliff 500 feet high:" When I was sketching, a shepherd, with a boy of fifteen 0-^ - " -IV -r &. I rTr0-JJ-_ — - - I- - "THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON" By permission ofl. S. Virtue and Co. and three or four others a year or two younger, came and sat down beside me. To show them I intended to have my own way, I told the man to sit further away on one side and the 4IO JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS boy on the other. I could not order them away altogether, as they greeted me civilly on first arriving, but it was difficult to attend to my work, for they required looking after. I had laid aside my pistol-case on account of the heat, and in two minutes the man had got hold of it and was unfastening the button. I clutched it away, and cautioned him that if he touched anything of mine again I would send them all away, at the same time buckling the weapon round my waist. Then, turning my head, I found the younger gentleman with his hand in my pocket, upon which I reached out, boxed his ears, and pushed him aside, and standing up ordered them all away. This brought on a hubbub. Seeing that I was determined in my course, the man said they were Arab fellaheen, who would not be put off. Would I give them some English gunpowder? No; I would give nothing. 'Very well,' he said, ' I will bring down all the fellaheen to kill you.' Meanwhile my friend Dr. Sim was lying asleep in a cave at some distance, and on looking towards him I saw another young Arab, who had crawled into the cave, engaged at the opening in examining the articles in his hand with the closest possible interest; so I called out lustily enough to wake Sim, and at this point the Arab boy bolted with Sim's boots. They all went away then, threatening dreadful things, and I set to work again to make up for lost time. In a few minutes I heard a furious altercation.... Sim was standing high on a rock, while the man was crouching down aiming at him over a ledge; but as my companion stood unmoved with his gun under his arm while the Arab was dreadfully excited, I was not alarmed. It appears that the fellow had approached him on his descent, demanding powder, that Sim had called him majnoon (madman) and ordered him off. At last, Sim closing upon his adversary with his gun cocked, the latter moved off to safer quarters." The following letter relates to Hunt's third journey to the East:"JERUSALEM, " October 12th, I87I. "MY DEAR MILLAIS, - I was very glad to get yours of August 20th, which came here about three weeks since. I should have written since my last, notwithstanding that I had had no answer to mine, but I was excessively occupied, HOLMAN HUNT 4II and always thinking that in another few weeks I should be on my road home to England. "I was truly sorry to hear of your father's death.... "THE PARABLE OF THE UNJUST JUDGE" Byjermission ofj S. Virtue and Co. He was a good old fellow, and associated in my mind with all manner of kind and pleasant hospitality, and true, generous friendship, and I had hoped to spend many other 4I2 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS pleasant hours with the dear old boy —for he was always a boy, and all the better for this. Well, our next chat must be in the Elysian Fields, where we shall have lots of things to talk about, and where (however soon it may be) he will enact the part of old stager, as he did when I first knew him in Gower Street! And what a lot of old chums there will be whom, when I left England last, I counted upon smoking many mundane pipes with again —Halliday, Martineau, Phillips, my good brother-in-law George, an old chum and fellow-traveller of old here, Beaumont, as well as the boring, good-natured. They will coach us as to the course we are to take there, and tell us where to find people we want to see and know (when it may be allowed to such new-comers to be admitted to their society), and whether and where our own most sacred ones may be overtaken. "Life here wants sonething to make it bearable. Having no sort of counter-interest, my work becomes the most frightful anxiety to me, and sometimes I am sure I have lost a great deal of labour from nursing all manner of fears about it. When a notion once gets into my head it goes on worrying me until I see everything by its light, and I am tempted to change back again. When I began my work I had very ambitious hopes about it, but (like Browning's man, who in infancy cried for the moon, and in old age was grateful for the crutch on which he hobbled out of the world) I should be glad now to find it only done in any way. There are peculiar difficulties in the subject I have devoted my time to -such serious ones that, had I only foreseen them, I would have left the subject to some future painter; but I tried to console myself by thinking that other pictures I have in my mind to follow will go more easily and be a great deal better. "I am like you in loving my Art very intensely now, the more it seems that I am denied all other love; but I am reminded of the remark of a little child, who, talking about love to her mother, said it pained so. My love for Art pains me - it hurts me sleeping and waking; there is no rest from it -and I, getting old in desponding service, feel (quoting Browning again) like Only the page that carols unseen, Crumbling your hounds their messes.' ' If I had my life over again (which ofttimes I should crave God for some reasons to spare me) I might (if fools "GREENWICH PENSIONERS AT THE TOMB OF NELSON." i868 By permission of Mr. H. Roberts HOLMAN HUNT 4I5 could be kept from hindering), out of the raw materials I started my days with, make a satisfactory painter; but this life is made so that wisdom and riches come too late. The prizes that boyhood sighs for come when toys are no longer in request; those which youth covets are withheld till youth is flown; and so on to the grave. One must continue one's journey minus the means and weapons which carelessness or over-confidence rejected at one's place of outfit —the tale of the foolish virgins again, who, in going back, came at last too late. One must go on now, trusting that the oil will last to the journey's end, though the lamp may not be so brilliant as it should be. The one fact that continually perplexes me is how the confidence of youth carried me through difficulties that now quite bring me to a standstill. I had no fear then of the distant royalty of my mistress, but bit by bit I have learnt the width of the gap between us; and the very sense of her greatness paralyses my hand in attempting the simplest service. It is very imprudent to confess all this, for the world will never believe in anyone who does not have unbounded confidence in himself, and will, on the contrary, accept any humbug who declares himself infallible; but you are not the world, but an old fellow-servant, who knows too well what sincere service is to be prejudiced against my work because I confess the trouble it gives me. I marvel at men who, like X -, never see a fault in anything they do, and regard with scorn any who venture to suggest an improvement. For the time they are enviable, yet I believe there is a degree of selfsatisfaction which limits a man's powers woefully... " I am sorry for William's loss of his child. Give my love to him as well as to all your family, and tell Mary I shall come and try her at her Catechism soon. " Yours ever, "W. HOLMAN HUNT." It will be seen from these letters how interesting was Hunt's life in the Holy Land, and how pregnant with thought are the graver incidents to which he calls attention. Some day, perhaps, he may be tempted to give to the world a full record of his life and adventures, which-judging from the vast mass of correspondence it has been my privilege to read - could not fail to find acceptance with the public. 416 JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS Outside of our own family he was my father's sole confidant; nothing was hidden from him, and his letter to my brother Everett, in August, I896, expresses only what we all know to be the inmost sentiments of the writer. Referring to my father's death, he says: —" After fifty-two years of unbroken friendship the earthly bond has separated. New generations with fresh struggles to engage in ever advance and sweep away many of the memories of individual lives, even when these have been the most eminent.... It would be a real loss to the world if your father's manly straightforwardness and his fearless sense of honour should ever cease to be remembered. There are men who never challenge criticism, because they have no sense of individual independence. My old friend was different, and he justified all his courses by loyalty and consistency as well as courage - the courage of a true conscience. As a painter of subtle perfection, while his works last they will prove the supreme character of his genius, and this will show more conspicuously when the mere superficial tricksters in Art have fallen to their proper level." CHAPTER XII I865-1880 Three historic gatherings - The parties at Strawberry Hill - Millais' personal friends - Letters from D'Epine, Luder Barnay, and Jan van Beers Mrs. Jopling-Rowe's recollections of Millais - O'Neil, painter and poet Fred Walker - Professor Owen - Robert Browning - Browning on the art of poetry -Visit to Marochetti. A DESULTORY chapter this-a thing of shreds and patches needful, however, as an introduction to intimate friends of Millais not yet noticed in these pages, and interesting perhaps as a reminder of some historic events in the lives of others with whom during this period he came into contact. Three historic gatherings my mother was wont to describe as making a great impression on her mind. The first at which she and my father were present was at Stafford House, where the late Duke of Sutherland gave a grand ball in honour of General Garibaldi, who was then on a visit to this country. The great soldier, wearing as in Italy the red shirt ever since associated with his name, entered the ball-room with the Duchess of Sutherland on his arm, and was greeted by all present with the homage due to Royalty as he passed down the room, stopping here and there for a moment's talk with some of the guests. Very striking was the expression of his face, at once so earnest and so genial; and still more conspicuous was the contrast between his simple dress and the gorgeous array of all the rest of the company. Some time after that came the reception given at the Foreign Office to the grandfather of the present Czar of Russia, whom my mother described as a very sad and dignified-looking man. They had the honour of being presented to him, and soon after his return to Russia, for which he set out on the following day, the cause of his sadness was I- 27 417 O O Cd 00~ 4-J Ct ) C 1 ' d cd C - d- U C'd ct ' cd 0 O E U c t L4-4 ld 4-) C/) 4- J C-d 4 -co C'd O U P... OU H 4 1 C -4 -) id x 4-1 -Ck jj a Ofr C4 OLTba,~ Y'c t 1 a In