His work has taken for the adult artist's work when he was only 6 years old, he was the youngest ever student at the Royal Academy of Arts, he became the first British artists received the title of baronet. The events of his life still inspire writers, writers and composers. Perhaps his name will not come to your mind when you are asked about the most famous and well-known artists, but most likely you have seen his picture, because they are one of the most replicated in the world.

In any case, until September 22, you can partake in his work by visiting the
John Everett Millais. 1854 Photo

Source: victorianweb.org

John Everett Millais (John Everett Millais) was born June 8, 1829 in Southampton, in southern England, was the third youngest, child of John William and Emily Milles. His parents came from the middle class, so the family did not lack the means and all the children received a versatile education from an early age.

known that John received primary education at home, and that he became interested in drawing the age of four. There is even a legend that when the boy was 6 years old and he and his family lived on an island off the coast of France the most, the young artist made sketches of French soldiers, and when the soldiers saw the work of John, they were betting that they could not draw a little boy, and of course , lost.

Parents strongly supported and developed the interest of the young John Everett for the arts and, finding that the capital has to give more opportunities for the development of the boy's talent, in 1838 decided to move from Southampton to London.

On arrival in London, John was presented to the President of the Royal Academy of Arts Archer Shi, who, having studied the albums with pictures, treated him very favorably. But for admission to the academy required initial art education, and a nine-year, John was determined to art school Henry Sass, where he studied for two years and was awarded the silver medal of the Society of Arts for academic excellence.

• John Everett Millais Fighters. 1840/1841
  Watercolour. 36,2 × 54
  Tate Gallery, London
  Source: tate.org.uk
• John Everett Millais Pizarro takes prisoner captured the Peruvian Incas. 1846
  Oil on canvas. 128,3 × 171,7
  Victoria and Albert Museum, London
  Source: collections.vam.ac.uk

In 1840, eleven-year-John Everett Millais officially became the youngest ever student at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Over the years of teaching at the Academy, he was awarded the silver medal for the outline of antique casts (1843) and won a gold medal (1847) for his work "The attack on the tribe of Benjamin, daughters of Siloam." His first appearance in public was also organized by the Academy of Arts: in 1846 the work of "Pizarro takes prisoner Peruvian Incas" with great success was shown at the Academy summer exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

However, in addition to awards and recognition, John Millais was at the Academy, and much more: during his nearly seven years of study he had time to meet and make friends with people, largely determined his future life and work - the students of the Academy by William Holman Hunt (William Holman Hunt) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Dante Gabriel Rossetti). Together they would neither more nor less than to change the visual arts and the UK have an impact on the development of European culture in general.

«B 1848 students and recent graduates of the Royal Academy of Arts were four young men - William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Thomas Woolner [Thomas Woolner]. The first three were the artists, the fourth - a sculptor. In January 1848 Hunt was 20 years old, Millais - 18, Rossetti - 19, Woolner - 22 ...

... they called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. During the first year or two they signed their letters of "P. R. B. "meaning brother-Pre-Raphaelite.

addition to these four artists to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was joined by three other young men: two were artists, but the third was not an artist, but soon he was waiting for the fate of the art critic - is James Collinson [James Collinson], Frederic George Stephens [Frederic George Stephens] and this writer William Michael Rossetti [William Michael Rossetti]. Thus, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were seven and never consisted of any other members of the Brotherhood, but these seven ».

artists set themselves the task to move away from the tradition of academic - the main artistic direction UK XIX century - and build upon the works of nature, nature, and not from the academic composite schemes. It is now widely held view that the Brotherhood was trying to imitate his art the art of medieval Italy, the early Renaissance, the time to era Raphael. However, the source said yet about the other. In the essay "The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" is one of the main theorists of the participants and the Brotherhood, William Holman Hunt, wrote that "Rafael in his prime was the artist most that neither is independent and defiant in their attitude to the conventions." But here's the followers of Raphael (Hunt called them Raphaelites ) «during his life transformed Raphael poses a stark composition", laying the tradition, "which formed the basis for all subsequent schools," but for the middle of the XIX century were " destructive and creative vision stifled. The name "Pre-Raphaelites" - argued W. Hunt - denies the impact of such distorters (even Raphael himself, given some of his work will be in the same list), but recognizes the impact of a more sincere predecessors master ».

In other words, do not to Raphael , but to Raphaelite ...

First Pre-Raphaelite works have appeared in exhibitions of the season 1848 /1849: Hunt, Millais and Collinson exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, and Rossetti, who had by then quarrel with the Academy and therefore deprived of access to its facilities, - the so-called "Open Show", later called the National Institute. They were taken quite favorably, and "Isabella" Milles, which today is called the first work done in the aesthetics of the Brotherhood, even won several personal accolades.

John Everett Millais Isabella (Lorenzo and Isabella). 1849 Oil on canvas. 104,3 × 74 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Source: commons.wikimedia.org

John Everett Millais Christ in the house of the parents (carpenter). 1849-1850 Oil on canvas. 86,4 × 139,7 Tate Gallery, London Source: tate.org.uk

The attitude and the public, and criticism has changed in the next, in 1850: the Academy of Fine Arts Millais exhibited the painting" Christ in the parental home (carpenter), "Hunt - work" Ancient Britons, harboring a missionary from the Druids, "Collinson - canvas" Reply to the letter immigrant ", in Portland gallery Rossetti showed" Annunciation ". On the work of the members of the Brotherhood barrage of criticism: they are cursed in museums, pounded to smithereens on the pages of newspapers. Most got a perpetual favorite of the public Milles: in his article "Old lamps instead of the new" his work was honored poisonous sarcasm editor of "Daily News" by Charles Dickens: "We have a carpentry shop. In the foreground is a disgusting little boy in red nightgown, tear-stained, with a curved neck. It looks like he was playing with his friends in a gutter somewhere and got a stick on his hand, and now complains kneeling woman so ugly inconceivable that it would have stared in horror at the very low-grade French or English pub beer - unless, of course, assume that a person with such a rolled on its side neck able to live at least a minute. Next to busy with their work two nearly naked carpenter, master and apprentice, - worthy companions this pleasant person. Another boy, which still glimmers something human, is a bowl of water, and no one pays attention to the old woman with a yellowed face, which apparently was a tobacco shop and a door was wrong, and now can not wait, when she weighed out, half an ounce of your favorite smelling mixture ...

Here in what form, ladies and gentlemen, in the nineteenth century on the eighty-second annual exhibition of the British Academy of Fine Arts teaches the Pre-Raphaelites most sacred episode of human history " .

One would think that after such a devastating collapse of the articles of the Brotherhood was inevitable and career of young innovators over. However, intervened in the matter, John Ruskin, one of the most respected art critics of the time and recognized art theorist, who in his letter to the editor of the magazine "Times" made a pre-Raphaelite virtually infallible in the eyes of the public, and then the criticism. "I sincerely believe - Ruskin wrote - that if the courage and energy, which have demonstrated the Pre-Raphaelites, developing its own system, would unite with patience and understanding, and if they are under the influence of too harsh or frivolous criticism will not abandon their principles and methods of influence on the minds of viewers , they can gain experience, lay the foundation for a new England in art school and become at the origins of art, which is nobler world has not seen for three hundred years ». Ruskin has always stood for the art associated with reality, but internally romantic, a lot of attention to the skill and technique of the work, so the ideas and work of the Pre-Raphaelite is the best answer to his views. Among all of the Pre-Raphaelites Ruskin most singled Milles - the youngest, but also the most recognized member of the Brotherhood - admiring his unsurpassed skills in painting and drawing.

John Everett Millais Ophelia. 1851-1852
Oil on canvas. 76,2 × 111,8
Tate Gallery, London
Source: tate.org.uk

In 1852 Millais created "Ophelia", which today is called the most vivid and impressive work of not only its author, but also the whole of English art. Not immediately, but she made even the most ardent critics of the Brotherhood of ideas to ensure absolute correctness of the talent of the artist and Ruskin. The artist showed Ophelia's death, but showed so that the picture was a beautiful, though very unusual, hard to tear from her eye, her art is evident in more and more innovative artistic techniques. Thus, contrary to the common method of writing such works Millais first took up the background and has worked in plein air landscape by the river Hogsmeade, in Surrey, performing sketches for most of the day. The figure of Ophelia Append later, also with nature. Ophelia was the model for the 19-year-old Elizabeth Siddal - most probably the famous Pre-Raphaelite muse. She posed for the artist in a tin bath, the water heated in the flame of the candles. Legend has it that one day Milles so started painting, I did not notice how the candles were extinguished, and Elizabeth did not dare to interrupt him. As a result, Millais was a better picture, and Lizzie Siddal - pneumonia, which is treated to the very end of life. More from Millais it did not work.

a resounding success, "Ophelia" and several other paintings shown in the years 1852-1853, Millais was required to official recognition of his work and the election of a member of the Academy of Arts in 24 years (the minimum allowed for this age).

In 1853, Ruskin, who passionately fond of geology and was interested in botany, Milles invited to journey together through Scotland, the aim of which was to visit the natural monuments, as well as the creation of a portrait criticism (experts today called it one of the best portraits of the artist.) However, during this trip, the unexpected happened: Millais fell in love with Ruskin's wife Effie. The feeling was mutual. In 1854, the marriage of John Ruskin and Effie Gray Chalmers was invalid, and in 1855 she married Milles. The pair were inseparable until his death (Effie survived her husband for a few months) and had eight children. But she had this romantic story was the basis for the creation of three films, two plays, several novels, and even opera.

William Holman Hunt Portrait of John Everett Milles. 1853 paper on cardboard, pencil, crayons 33,2 × 24,8 National Portrait Gallery, London Source: wikipaintings.org

John Everett Millais Portrait of Effie Ruskin, later - Lady Millais (nee Eufimii Chalmers Gray). 1853 Watercolour, 25,5 × 21 The Leicester Galleries, London Source: leicestergalleries.com

mid-1850s can be called the turning point of time in the work of Milles. On the one hand, he creates works perfectly in the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelites, such as "Autumn Leaves" (1855-1856) or the "Valley of calm" (1858-1859), on the other - more in the style of academic work, a lot of book illustrations, as well as graphics - drawings and prints.

John Everett Millais Autumn Leaves. 1856 Oil on canvas. 104.3 × 74 City of Manchester Art Galleries, Manchester Source: manchestergalleries.org

John Everett Millais Valley sedation. 1858-1859 Oil on canvas. 102.9 × 172,7 Tate Gallery, London Source: tate.org.uk

In 1861, he and his family lived in a large mansion in Kengsington, numerous children and secular portraits created there, brought its author fame portrait. In 1863 th member of the Academy of Fine Arts, John Everett Millais became an academician, his fame goes beyond the UK. Instead, a growing number of orders - and at the end of 1870 the family has to rebuild the mansion to expand the workshop. The history of art is replete with sad examples where such a master of the well-being transformed, especially a portrait of "secular artisan", but escaped this fate Millais: Portraits - for money, but for the soul - Landscape painting, which he was seriously interested in this period.

John Everett Millais Cold October. 1870 Oil on canvas. 1856,7 × 141 Private Collection Source: wikipaintings.org

By the end of 1870 Milles was the highest paid painter in England, his annual income was over 30,000 pounds, and the prints of his paintings disperse thousands of copies - it is known, for example, that an engraving of the painting "Cherry Ripe" (1879) edition was printed in 600,000 copies and in 1880 sold all in a few days.

At the end of 1880 of Soap Company Pierce put the work Milles "Bubbles" on a billboard - the first time in the history of the painting was used in advertising!

John Everett Millais Bubble. 1886 oil on canvas Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool Source: liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Soap Pierce. Promotional poster. 1886 Source: enjoyart. com

In 1885 Millais (among the first artists to receive this honor) received the honorary title of baronet, and the prefix "Sir" to the name. And in 1896, despite the serious health condition, accepted a position as president of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Milles Died August 17, 1896 and was buried in the Cathedral of St. Peter among the most respected, well-known and respected people of Great Britain.

However, his fame had gone nearly that comes with it. Like many Victorian artists in the early and mid-twentieth century - a period of wars and new art - Milles was forgotten. Name and creativity it was reopened by experts and the public in the 1960s, in the wake of interest in Victorian England.

Today creativity Milles, as the Pre-Raphaelite art is very popular. Proof of this are the numerous exhibitions of their work in major museums around the world. Milles work can also be found in the catalogs of auction houses like Sotheby's or Christie's; and they are sold, mostly painting, for millions. However, in the mid-price segment, a lot of graphics, prints and found that, if you're lucky, you can buy even a thousand, but for hundreds of dollars.

record price for the work to date Milles - 2,091,500 pounds for his film "Sleeper" - was recorded in 1999 at the auction the auction house Christie's. However, at the same Christie's sold the work again: in 2003, for it gave 1,237,250 pounds. Generally speaking, 1999 has turned the first peak year for the market works Milles: in the same year, for example, for his "Joan of Arc" is already at Sotheby's gave 1,321,500 pounds.

John Everett Millais Sleeping Oil on canvas. 89 × 68,5 Christie's. 11.06.2003. Lot 9 Estimate: 1 200 000-1 800 000 pounds Result: 1,237,250 pounds Source: christies.com

John Everett Millais Joan of Arc Oil on canvas. 81,9 × 61,9 Sotheby's. 10.11.1999. Lot 138 Estimate: 300 000-400 000 pounds Result: 1,321,500 pounds Source: wikipaintings.org