John Everett Millais, 1829-1896, by David Wilkie Wynfield (1837–1887) (original) (raw)
John Everett Millais (1829-1896)
Photographer: David Wilkie Wynfield (1837–1887)
1860s
Albumen print
8 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches (21.0 x 16.2 cm)
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, accession no. NPG P79
Photo: © National Portrait Gallery, London.
Reproduced with kind permission. [Click on image to enlarge it, and see commentary below; mouse over the text for links.]
Commentary by Dennis T. Lanigan
Wynfield has portrayed Millais in the character of Dante Alighieri, which Jan Marsh has taken as "an allusion to the inspiration of the PRB and the sharp profiles of early Italian portraiture" (34). Millais is shown in profile to the right wearing the laurel wreath of the poet and holding a book in his right hand against his chest. When the artist Edward Lear viewed Wynfield's photographs he praised them for being artistic but did not view them as legitimate portraits because of their anachronistic costumes. In a letter of 1865 from Lear to his friend William Holman Hunt he wrote: "They are picturesque subjects but not likenesses – at least one may be excused for not recognizing J. Millais as Dante, or Phillip in Spanish dress – seeing they seldom walk about so attired" (qtd. in Waggoner 96).
Millais was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and one of the most influential young artists of the day at the time Wynfield took his photograph. He was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1853, a full member in 1863, and President in 1896 following the death of Frederic Leighton. Queen Victoria created him a Baronet in 1885. He became one of the most successful painters of the Victorian age.
Bibliography
Blackett-Ord, Carol. "This Portrait." National Portrait Gallery. Web. 14 December 2023.
Hacking, Juliet. Princes of Victorian Bohemia. London: Prestel, 2000. 68-69.
Marsh, Jan. The Pre-Raphaelite Circle. London: National Portrait Gallery Publications, 2013 (see p. 34).
Waggoner, Diane. The Pre-Raphaelite Lens. British Photography and Painting, 1848-1875. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2010.
Created 14 December 2023