Who Was John Everett Millais?

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was an English painter and illustrator, a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848), and one of the most successful Victorian painters of the nineteenth century. Born in Southampton on June 8, 1829, the son of John William Millais and Emily Mary Millais, John Everett Millais showed precocious artistic talent and became the youngest student ever admitted to the Royal Academy schools at age eleven (in 1840). He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, along with painters James Collinson and Frederic George Stephens, the sculptor Thomas Woolner, and the art critic William Michael Rossetti. Millais was created a baronet (Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet) in 1885 and was elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts in February 1896, only months before his death in August of that year.

This guide covers who John Everett Millais was, his prodigious early career, his role in founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, his most famous paintings, his relationship with John Ruskin and Effie Gray, his later career and shift in style, and his cultural legacy.

Who was John Everett Millais?

Sir John Everett Millais was an English painter and illustrator born in Southampton on June 8, 1829, and died in London on August 13, 1896. He was the most technically gifted of the three founding Pre-Raphaelite painters (alongside Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt) and one of the most commercially successful British artists of the Victorian period.

Millais was a child prodigy in art. He won a Society of Arts medal at age nine and was admitted to the Royal Academy schools at age eleven (the youngest student ever admitted up to that time). His prodigious early talent set him on a fast trajectory through the academic art establishment that he would later challenge and then eventually lead.

In 1848, at age nineteen, Millais joined Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt in founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which sought to reform British painting by rejecting Royal Academy conventions and returning to the principles of art before Raphael. Millais was the most technically gifted of the founders and produced some of the most famous early Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

Millais's later career took a different direction from the strict Pre-Raphaelite principles of his youth. From the late 1850s onward, his style shifted toward broader, more commercial subjects (genre paintings, portraits, sentimental subjects) and a freer, more painterly brush technique. The change of style was controversial among purist Pre-Raphaelite supporters but brought Millais enormous commercial success.

Millais was created a baronet (Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet) by Queen Victoria in 1885, the first British artist to receive a hereditary title. He was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1863 and served as President of the Royal Academy of Arts from February 1896 until his death in August that year. His career trajectory took him from outsider rebel founder of the Pre-Raphaelites to insider leader of the Royal Academy, a remarkable shift across less than fifty years.

What was Millais's early life?

John Everett Millais was born on June 8, 1829, in Southampton, England, the son of John William Millais and Emily Mary Millais. The Millais family came from Jersey (one of the Channel Islands) and had French Norman heritage; the family name is pronounced "Millay" in the French manner, though the English pronunciation "Millais" is also widely used.

Millais showed exceptional artistic talent from very early childhood. By age seven, he was producing accomplished drawings. By age nine, he had won a Society of Arts medal for drawing. His parents recognized his talent and moved the family from Jersey to London around 1838 specifically to support his artistic development.

In 1840, at age eleven, Millais was admitted to the Royal Academy schools, the youngest student ever admitted up to that time. He spent the next eight years in formal academic training at the Royal Academy, developing the technical skills that would distinguish his work throughout his career.

At the Royal Academy schools, Millais became close friends with William Holman Hunt, a fellow student. Their friendship would become central to the founding of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Millais also encountered the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti through the broader art student community of late-1840s London.

Millais won several Royal Academy prizes during his student years, including the Academy's gold medal for history painting in 1847. By the time he was nineteen, he was widely recognized as one of the most promising young painters in Britain. The conventional path from this position would have been a successful Royal Academy career; instead, Millais joined Rossetti and Hunt in founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and challenging the very institution that had trained him.

How did Millais found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

Millais founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, along with painters James Collinson and Frederic George Stephens, the sculptor Thomas Woolner, and the art critic William Michael Rossetti. The founding took place in September 1848 at a series of meetings at Millais's parents' house at 83 Gower Street in London and at Hunt's studio.

Millais's role in the founding was central. He was the most technically accomplished of the three principal painters (Hunt, Rossetti, Millais) and produced some of the most ambitious early Pre-Raphaelite paintings. His role was as much about visible production as about the manifesto: while Rossetti and others articulated the Brotherhood's principles, Millais's paintings demonstrated what those principles looked like in practice.

The seven members agreed on a set of Pre-Raphaelite principles: to have genuine ideas to express, to study nature attentively, to sympathize with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, and to produce thoroughly good pictures. They committed to reforming British painting by returning to the principles of art before Raphael (1483-1520).

Millais's first major Pre-Raphaelite painting was "Christ in the House of His Parents" (also called "The Carpenter's Shop," 1849-1850), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850. The painting depicted the Holy Family in Joseph's carpentry workshop with realistic detail and unidealized faces. The painting was attacked by Charles Dickens in his magazine Household Words for its unidealized depiction of the Holy Family, and the controversy made the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood famous (and infamous) in Victorian London.

Following the controversy of 1850, the Brotherhood received critical support from John Ruskin, the leading British art critic of the period. Ruskin published letters to The Times defending the Pre-Raphaelites and arguing for the seriousness of their artistic program. Ruskin's support was crucial in establishing the Pre-Raphaelites as a serious artistic movement rather than a passing controversy.

The formal Brotherhood lasted only a few years as a coherent group. By the mid-1850s, the founders had begun to pursue independent careers, and Millais in particular began to shift away from strict Pre-Raphaelite principles toward broader commercial work. His election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1853 was an early sign of this shift.

What are John Everett Millais's most famous paintings?

Millais's most famous paintings include "Christ in the House of His Parents" (1849-1850), "Ophelia" (1851-1852), "The Order of Release" (1853), "Autumn Leaves" (1856), "The Boyhood of Raleigh" (1870), "Bubbles" (1886), and many others. His paintings are held at Tate Britain, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Manchester Art Gallery, and many other major museums.

Christ in the House of His Parents (1849-1850, also called The Carpenter's Shop): Millais's first major Pre-Raphaelite painting, depicting the young Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and other family members in Joseph's carpentry workshop. Charles Dickens attacked the painting for its unidealized depiction of the Holy Family, and the controversy made the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood famous. Now at Tate Britain.

Ophelia (1851-1852): Millais's most famous painting, depicting the drowned Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, floating in a stream surrounded by precisely depicted flowers and plants. Millais painted the background outdoors on the Hogsmill River in Surrey and painted the figure indoors with Elizabeth Siddal modeling in a bathtub. The painting is one of the most iconic works of Pre-Raphaelite painting. Now at Tate Britain.

The Order of Release (1853): depicts a Scottish prisoner being released after the 1745 Jacobite uprising, embraced by his wife and child. The wife was modeled by Effie Gray, then John Ruskin's wife. Millais and Effie Gray fell in love during this painting; their relationship would lead to one of the major Victorian scandals. Now at Tate Britain.

Autumn Leaves (1856): Millais's later painting of four girls gathered around a pile of autumn leaves. The painting marks the transition between Millais's strict Pre-Raphaelite period and his more painterly mature style. Now at Manchester Art Gallery.

The Boyhood of Raleigh (1870): depicts the young Walter Raleigh listening to a sailor's tales, illustrating the imaginative formation of the future explorer. The painting became one of the most reproduced Victorian narrative paintings. Now at Tate Britain.

Bubbles (1886): depicts a young boy (modeled by Millais's grandson) blowing soap bubbles. The painting became famous when it was acquired by the Pears soap company and used as a soap advertisement, making it one of the most widely reproduced Victorian paintings. Now at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Other major Millais paintings include "Mariana" (1850-1851), "The Blind Girl" (1856), "The Black Brunswicker" (1860), "The Eve of Saint Agnes" (1863), "Cherry Ripe" (1879), and many portraits of leading Victorian cultural figures including Tennyson, Disraeli, Gladstone, and Trollope.

What was Millais's relationship with John Ruskin and Effie Gray?

The relationship between Millais, John Ruskin, and Effie Gray became one of the major Victorian art-world scandals. The triangle began with Ruskin's critical support for the Pre-Raphaelites in 1851 and ended with Effie Gray's annulment from Ruskin and marriage to Millais in 1855.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was the leading British art critic of the Victorian period and a major early supporter of the Pre-Raphaelites. Ruskin published letters in The Times in 1851 defending the Pre-Raphaelites against critical attacks and arguing for the seriousness of their artistic program. Ruskin's support was crucial in establishing the Pre-Raphaelites as a major artistic movement.

Ruskin married Euphemia (Effie) Chalmers Gray in April 1848. The marriage was unhappy and unconsummated; the reasons are debated by historians but appear to involve Ruskin's emotional and physical incapacity for marital intimacy. By the early 1850s, Effie Gray was deeply unhappy in the marriage.

In 1853, Millais joined the Ruskins on a holiday at Glenfinlas in Perthshire, Scotland, where he was painting a portrait of Ruskin and where Effie modeled for Millais's painting "The Order of Release." During this Scottish holiday, Millais and Effie fell in love.

After the holiday, Effie initiated annulment proceedings against Ruskin on grounds of non-consummation of the marriage. The annulment was granted in July 1854, freeing her to remarry. Effie Gray and John Everett Millais married in July 1855, a year after her annulment.

The Millaises had eight children together. Effie remained Millais's wife and creative partner for the rest of his life. The family lived prosperously in London and at country houses in Scotland (where Millais painted many later landscape works). Effie was a powerful promoter of Millais's work; she and her husband worked in concert to secure commissions and expand their social and intellectual circles in late Victorian London.

Ruskin and Millais maintained an awkward formal distance after the scandal. Ruskin continued his career as critic, writer, and reformer, and never remarried (though he was emotionally involved with the young Rose La Touche in his later years). The personal drama did not damage either man's career but added a complex personal layer to their continuing artistic and critical engagements.

How did Millais's style change after the Pre-Raphaelite years?

Millais's style changed significantly from the late 1850s onward, moving away from strict Pre-Raphaelite detail and toward broader, more commercial subjects and a freer painterly brush technique. The change of style was controversial among purist Pre-Raphaelite supporters but brought Millais enormous commercial success.

The early Pre-Raphaelite Millais (1848-1857) painted with extreme precision, depicting every leaf, flower, and fabric detail with botanical accuracy. The paintings used bright color (often on a white ground that gave the colors extra luminosity) and serious moral and religious subject matter. "Ophelia" and "Christ in the House of His Parents" represent this strict Pre-Raphaelite phase.

From the late 1850s, Millais's brush technique became broader and more painterly. The extreme detail of his early work gave way to a freer style that emphasized atmospheric effects and pictorial drama over precise representational detail. "Autumn Leaves" (1856) marks the transition; by the 1860s, the broader style was firmly established.

Millais also shifted toward more commercial subject matter. Pre-Raphaelite serious religious and literary subjects gave way to genre scenes, sentimental subjects (especially of children), historical narratives, and portraits of leading Victorian cultural figures. The new subjects appealed to the broader Victorian middle-class art market and brought Millais enormous commercial success.

The change of style was controversial. John Ruskin, who had championed the Pre-Raphaelite Millais, was disappointed by the later work and stopped his strong support. William Holman Hunt, who maintained strict Pre-Raphaelite principles throughout his career, was openly critical of Millais's commercial direction. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had also moved away from strict Pre-Raphaelite principles in his own way, was more sympathetic.

For commercial success, the new style worked extremely well. Millais became one of the wealthiest British artists of his generation, with paintings selling for high prices and reproductive prints reaching huge audiences. "Bubbles" (1886), used as a Pears soap advertisement, became one of the most widely reproduced Victorian paintings.

The trajectory from Pre-Raphaelite rebel to commercial success and Royal Academy president has been read in different ways. Some critics see it as a betrayal of original Pre-Raphaelite principles. Others see it as a natural maturation in which Millais found his most successful artistic voice. The debate continues among art historians.

What is John Everett Millais known for?

Millais is known for several major contributions to Victorian British art: founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, painting some of the most iconic Pre-Raphaelite works (especially "Ophelia"), achieving enormous commercial success with later genre paintings and portraits, serving as President of the Royal Academy of Arts, and becoming the first British artist to receive a hereditary baronetcy.

For Pre-Raphaelite painting, Millais is known for "Christ in the House of His Parents" (the first major painting publicly identified as Pre-Raphaelite), "Ophelia" (the most famous Pre-Raphaelite painting), "Mariana," "The Blind Girl," and many other works from the strict Pre-Raphaelite period of 1848-1857. These paintings established the visual identity of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

For later commercial success, Millais is known for genre paintings, sentimental subjects, historical narratives, and portraits that appealed to the Victorian middle-class art market. "Bubbles" (1886), "The Boyhood of Raleigh" (1870), "Cherry Ripe" (1879), and many portraits made Millais one of the most reproduced and commercially successful Victorian painters.

For Royal Academy career, Millais was elected an Associate in 1853, a full member in 1863, and President in February 1896. His trajectory from outsider founder of the Pre-Raphaelites to insider leader of the Royal Academy embodies the trajectory of nineteenth-century British art itself, with avant-garde movements gradually being absorbed into the establishment.

For social distinction, Millais was created a baronet (Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet) by Queen Victoria in 1885, the first British artist to receive a hereditary title. The honor reflected his enormous public stature in late Victorian Britain. His son John William Millais inherited the baronetcy after his death.

For cultural influence, Millais's work shaped Victorian visual culture broadly. His paintings reached huge audiences through reproductive prints, illustrated journals, and (in the case of "Bubbles") commercial advertising. His version of late Victorian visual style influenced popular taste well into the early twentieth century.

How many children did Millais have?

John Everett Millais and Effie Gray had eight children together over the course of their thirty-one-year marriage (1855-1896). The children were Everett Millais (born 1856), George Gray Millais (born 1857), Effie Gray Millais (born 1858), Mary Hunt Millais (born 1860), Alice Sophia Caroline Millais (born 1862), Geoffroy William Millais (born 1863), John Guille Millais (born 1865), and Sophie Margaret Jameson Millais (born 1868).

Several of the Millais children appeared as models in their father's paintings. The children's images contributed to Millais's success with sentimental genre paintings featuring children. "Cherry Ripe" (1879), "Bubbles" (1886, modeled by Millais's grandson Willie James), and many other Millais paintings of children gained wide audiences through reproduction.

The eldest son, John William Millais (sometimes given as Everett Millais), inherited his father's baronetcy in 1896 to become Sir Everett Millais, 2nd Baronet. The Millais baronetcy continued through subsequent generations of the family.

John Guille Millais (1865-1931), the seventh child, became a prominent naturalist, author, and big-game hunter, and wrote a major two-volume biography of his father, "The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais" (published 1899), one of the standard primary sources on Millais's life.

The Millais family lived in prosperity throughout the artist's career, with houses in London (at Cromwell Place, South Kensington) and in Scotland (where the family spent extended periods, especially in Perthshire). The combination of Millais's artistic success and Effie's social organization made the family one of the most prominent Victorian artistic families.

When did John Everett Millais die?

Sir John Everett Millais died on August 13, 1896, in London, at age 67. The cause of death was throat cancer (laryngeal cancer), which had been diagnosed earlier that year and which had prevented him from speaking in his final months.

Millais had been elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts in February 1896, only six months before his death. His tenure as President was brief and largely ceremonial, as his health declined rapidly after his diagnosis. His death cut short what could have been a longer tenure as the leader of the British art establishment.

Millais's funeral was held at Saint Paul's Cathedral on August 20, 1896. He was buried in the cathedral's Painters' Corner (the south transept), alongside other major British painters. The state funeral and burial reflected his enormous public stature at the end of his life.

His son Sir Everett Millais, 2nd Baronet, inherited the baronetcy after his death. Effie Gray Millais survived her husband by less than four months; she died in December 1896 at age 68. The death of both parents in the same year ended one of the most prominent late Victorian artistic households.

Millais's posthumous reputation has varied across changing critical tastes. The Pre-Raphaelite paintings of his early career remain widely admired; the later commercial paintings have been more variably received. Modern art history has tended to emphasize the Pre-Raphaelite work over the commercial success, but the breadth of Millais's career continues to invite scholarly attention.

John Everett Millais questions

Who was John Everett Millais?

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was an English painter and illustrator, a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848), and one of the most successful Victorian painters. He was born in Southampton in 1829, was admitted to the Royal Academy schools at age eleven (the youngest ever), founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt in 1848, and served as President of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1896, the year of his death.

What is John Everett Millais known for?

Millais is known for founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, painting iconic Pre-Raphaelite works including "Ophelia" (1851-1852) and "Christ in the House of His Parents" (1849-1850), achieving enormous commercial success with later genre paintings and portraits including "Bubbles" (1886) and "The Boyhood of Raleigh" (1870), serving as President of the Royal Academy of Arts, and becoming the first British artist to receive a hereditary baronetcy (in 1885).

How many children did Millais have?

John Everett Millais and Effie Gray had eight children together: Everett, George Gray, Effie Gray, Mary Hunt, Alice Sophia Caroline, Geoffroy William, John Guille, and Sophie Margaret Jameson Millais. Several of the children appeared as models in their father's paintings. The eldest son inherited the Millais baronetcy in 1896. John Guille Millais wrote a major two-volume biography of his father, published in 1899.

How did he meet John Ruskin?

Millais met John Ruskin through Ruskin's critical support of the Pre-Raphaelites in 1851. Ruskin published letters in The Times defending the Pre-Raphaelites against critical attacks and arguing for the seriousness of their artistic program. Millais and Ruskin then became closer personally, and in 1853 Millais joined the Ruskins on a holiday at Glenfinlas in Perthshire, Scotland, where Millais painted a portrait of Ruskin and where Effie Gray (Ruskin's unhappy wife) modeled for Millais's painting "The Order of Release."

What was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was an artistic movement of young British painters and sculptors founded in London in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, along with James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens, Thomas Woolner, and William Michael Rossetti. The Brotherhood opposed the painting style taught at the Royal Academy and sought to return to the truth, simplicity, and detailed realism of art before Raphael (1483-1520).

What is Millais's most famous painting?

Millais's most famous painting is "Ophelia" (1851-1852), depicting the drowned Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet floating in a stream surrounded by precisely depicted flowers and plants. The painting is one of the most iconic works of Pre-Raphaelite painting and one of the most reproduced Victorian images. Now at Tate Britain. Other famous Millais paintings include "Christ in the House of His Parents" (1849-1850), "The Order of Release" (1853), and "Bubbles" (1886).

When did John Everett Millais die?

Sir John Everett Millais died on August 13, 1896, in London, at age 67. The cause of death was throat cancer. He had been elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts in February 1896, only six months before his death. He was buried at Saint Paul's Cathedral in the Painters' Corner of the south transept. His wife Effie Gray Millais died less than four months after her husband, in December 1896.

Was John Everett Millais a baronet?

Yes. John Everett Millais was created a baronet (Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet) by Queen Victoria in 1885, the first British artist to receive a hereditary title. The baronetcy passed to his eldest son (Sir Everett Millais, 2nd Baronet) on his death in 1896 and continued through subsequent generations of the Millais family.