John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet (8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896), was an English painter and illustrator and a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. A child prodigy, he entered the Royal Academy Schools at age eleven, the youngest student ever admitted. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was established in September 1847 at his family home on London's Gower Street (now number 7).

Born in Southampton in 1829 to a prominent family from Jersey, Millais spent most of his early childhood on the island, for which he maintained a lifelong devotion. When author Thackeray asked him "when England conquered Jersey," Millais replied, "Never! Jersey conquered England." The family also lived in Dinan, Brittany, for a few years. His mother, Emily Mary Millais, had a forceful personality and a keen interest in the arts; she encouraged her son's talent and moved the family to London to help him develop contacts at the Royal Academy. Millais later said, "I owe everything to my mother."

At the Royal Academy Schools, Millais met William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with whom he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1847. His painting *Christ in the House of His Parents* (1849–50) sparked considerable controversy for its realistic depiction of a working-class Holy Family in a messy carpentry shop. Later works, such as *A Huguenot* (1851–52), which shows a young couple about to be separated by religious conflict, also stirred debate but achieved popular success. Millais's early paintings were noted for their meticulous detail and focus on natural beauty. *Ophelia* (1851–52) exemplifies this approach, with dense, elaborate surfaces that have been described as a "pictorial eco-system." Another work, *Mariana* (1850–51), was based on Shakespeare's *Measure for Measure* and a poem by Tennyson.

This style was championed by critic John Ruskin, who defended the Pre-Raphaelites. Through Ruskin, Millais met Ruskin's wife, Effie. She modeled for his painting *The Order of Release*, and the two fell in love. Effie, still a virgin after years of marriage to Ruskin, filed for an annulment, which was granted in 1855. Millais and Effie married that same year and had eight children: Everett (1856), George (1857), Effie (1858), Mary (1860), Alice (1862), Geoffroy (1863), John (1865), and Sophie (1868). Their youngest son, John Guille Millais, became a naturalist and the artist's posthumous biographer. Daughter Alice later married Charles Stuart-Worsley and was a close friend and muse to composer Edward Elgar, possibly inspiring themes in his Violin Concerto. Effie's younger sister, Sophie Gray, sat for several Millais paintings, prompting speculation about their close relationship.

By the mid-1850s, Millais moved away from the Pre-Raphaelite style toward a broader realism. Ruskin condemned this shift as "a catastrophe," and some former admirers, including William Morris, accused Millais of selling out for popularity and wealth—he notoriously allowed one of his paintings to be used in a sentimental soap advertisement. Early 20th-century critics, viewing art through a Modernist lens, also dismissed much of his later work. However, recent decades have reassessed this period, seeing his later output as predictive of later trends and in line with broader changes in the late 19th-century art world. Millais became one of the wealthiest artists of his day, and his wife Effie actively promoted his work, helping secure commissions and expand their social and intellectual circles.