Sir John Everett Millais

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Christ in the House of His Parents
Exhibited with these words from the old
testament And one shall say unto him, what
are these wounds in thine hands?
Then He shall answer, Those with which I was
wounded in the house of My friends
Sir John Everett Millais 1849. Oil on canvas.
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THE ORIGINAL SKETCH HAS ONLY FOUR FIGURES, AND
DOES NOT INCLUDE JOHN THE BAPTIST OR THE LADDER
OR THE DOVE IN THE BACKGROUND
Original drawing- 1850. Pencil on paper.
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First, a little bit of background on. . .
JOHN MILLAIS

• born in 1829
• Youngest ever pupil at the royal academy school
  in art
  
• It was here that he met William holman Hunt and
  Dante
  
• Gabriel Rossetti, and thus the pre-Raphaelite
  brotherhood
  
• Was born
• was the most naturally gifted of the founders of
  the P.R.B.
  
• His art was minutely detailed and painting was a
  slow and laborious process
  
• Another famous painting of his is of Ophelia
• After he got married, he said it was no longer
  economically possible for him
  
• To spend so much time on a single painting, and
  so changed to a broader,
  
• Looser, more spontaneous style of painting.
• This change has been seen by many critics as a
  sell-out
  
• Went on to become one of the most successful
  portrait painters of Victorian
  
• Britain
• was a great craftsman, not an intellectual. He
  enjoyed hunting, fishing, and
  
• Shooting
• Much of the Criticism since his death was
  motivated by disapproval of his
  
• Material success
• - regarded as one of the great nineteenth century
  artists

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Ophelia
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Christ in his parents house
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About the painting

• -picture of Christ after he has wounded himself
  
  
• Trying to remove a nail from a board
  (foreshadowing)
  
• -Many reminders of the Crucification pincers,
  nail,
  
• Carpenter tools and ladder
• -John bringing a bowl of water is a reminder of
  both
  
• Baptism and of the vinegar and gall offered to
  Him
  
• As he was dying on the cross
• Bird perched on the ladder symbolizes the Holy
• Ghost
• -The sheep outside represent
• Human beings
• -the workbench represents
• The communion table
• -Exemplifies the early
• Pre-Raphaelite use type of
• Typology as a basis for
• Symbolic realism

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Criticism of the painting

• Millais was criticized for portraying the Holy
  Family as ordinary people, that it is
  disrespectful and blasphemous
  
• Charles Dickens called the Christ in the picture
  A Hideous wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy
  in a night-gown
  
• He also commented that the painting made the rest
  of the holy family look like alcoholics and
  Slum-dwellers
  

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Positive response

• John Ruskin- praised their devotion to nature and
  rejection of conventional methods of composition,
  supported them financially and in his writings

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A little soap opera like drama. . .

• - Millais met Ruskins wife, Effie, and they
  became friends. Soon after that she modeled for
  his painting the order of release. As he painted
  her they fell in love. She filed for an annulment
  from her marriage with ruskin, and then went on
  to marry millais

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Sources

• The Victorian web-
• www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/paintings/ho
  use.html
  
• The Victorian Art in Britain website
• http//www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/biog/millai
  s.htm
  
• The Tate Institute
• http//www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid952
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• wikipedia