Synopsis
The long and stellar career of John Everett Millais (1829-1896) has been framed in terms of his rise to notoriety as an original member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood followed by a compromising descent into comfortable success as a popular painter and leading figure in the Royal Academy. But this dismissal of Millais s post-Raphaelite work overlooks more than forty years of artistic endeavor and distinction. In this book, nine scholars reexamine Millais s entire career from a variety of perspectives, arriving at a new vision of his place in the history of British art and finding that fame and recognition did not represent the end of this important Victorian artist s development. The contributors consider the whole fabric of Millais s work, seeking the patterns of continuity through his career. They acknowledge the significance of Millais s association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood yet place that brief phase into the context of his entire body of work. Exploring such topics as Millais s position among contemporary artists; his active interests in theater, literature, and science; his life-long love of nature; his role as a celebrity and a popular artist; and his enduring fascination with the poignant specter of mortality, the book presents a portrait of Millais not limited by the parameters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. It is a portrait of a supremely gifted artist, a rival of Frederic Leighton, and a counterpart to Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Author Biography: Debra N. Mancoff is a freelance writer and scholar-in-residence of the Newberry Library in Chicago.