Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/181

 early youth, and for which he had frequently to have recourse to opiates. An accidental overdose of morphia cut short his life at the Residences, South Kensington Museum, on 10 June 1896. His body was cremated at Woking, and the remains interred at Brookwood cemetery. Middleton married, in December 1892, Bella, second daughter of William J. Stillman, American correspondent of the 'Times' at Rome, by whom he left one child.



MILLAIS, JOHN EVERETT (1829–1896), painter of history, genre, landscape, and portraits, and president of the Royal Academy, born at Southampton on 8 June 1829, was the youngest son of John William Millais, who belonged to an old Norman family settled in Jersey for many generations, and Emily Mary, daughter of John Evamy, and the widow of Enoch Hodgkinson, by whom she had two sons. The father (who died in 1870) was noted in the island of Jersey for his good looks and charming manners. He was also a good musician and a fair artist, and held a commission in the Jersey militia. He arrested Oxford who shot at the queen in 1840. The Millaises lived at Le Quaihouse, just outside St. Hellers, before they removed to Southampton, where Sir John and his elder brother William Henry (also an artist, and the author of 'The Game Birds of England') were born. The family returned to Jersey soon after Millais's birth, and there he developed a taste for natural history and sketching. A frame containing drawings done when only seven years old was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the winter of 1898. He drew a portrait of his maternal grandfather, John Evamy, fishing, when he was eight years old, and another of his father when he was eleven. He was sent to school, but showed no inclination for study, and was expelled for biting his master's hand. Among the friends of the Millaises at Jersey were the family of the Lemprieres,one of whom (afterwards General Lempriere), the grandson of Philip Raoul Lempriere, Seigneur of Roselle Manor, was the model for the Huguenot in Millais's famous picture of that name. In 1835 the family removed to Dinan in Brittany, where the child delighted the French military officers by his sketches. One of the colonel smoking a cigar, and another of the 'tambour major' are specially mentioned in his biography by his son. In 1837 the family once more returned to Jersey, where John received his first instruction in art from a Mr. Bessel, the best drawing-master in the island, who soon confessed that he could not teach his pupil anything more, and in 1838 he came to London with an introduction to Sir Martin Archer Shee [q, v.], the president of the Royal Academy. On the way he sketched [q. v.] asleep in the coach. Sir Martin told his parents that it was their plain duty to fit their son for the vocation for which nature had evidently intended him, and in the winter of 1838-9 he was sent to the well-known school of [q. v.] in Bloomsbury. In the same year he obtained a silver medal from the Society of Arts, and in 1840 became a student at the Royal Academy. Here he carried off every prize. His first picture in oils was 'Cupid crowned with Flowers,' painted in 1841. In 1843 he gained the first silver medal for drawing from the antique, and when seventeen the gold medal for an oil painting, 'The Young Men of Benjamin seizing their Brides.'

Millais still retained his disinclination for ordinary studies, and received all his education (except in art) from his mother, who read to him continually. He wore his boyish costume of gouffred tunic and wide falling collar till long past the usual age, and for this reason was called 'the child' by his fellow-students at the academy—a name which stuck to him long afterwards. He was tall and slim, high-spirited and independent, though very delicate. He was fond of cricket and of fishing, and made many friends. As early as 1840 he was asked to breakfast by Samuel Rogers, and met Wordsworth, and in 1846 he stayed with his half-brother, Henry Hodgkinson, at Oxford, and was introduced to Wyatt, the dealer in art, at whose house he frequently stayed as a guest during the next three years. On a window in the room he occupied he painted in oils 'The Queen of Beauty' and 'The Victorious Knight.' Wyatt bought his picture of 'Cymon and Iphigenia' (now belonging to Mr. Standen), painted in 1847 for the Royal Academy, but not exhibited. To 1849 belongs a portrait by Millais (exhibited in 1850) of Wyatt and his grandchild. Other acquaintances made at Oxford were Mr. and Mrs. Combe of the Clarendon Press, with whom he became intimate, and Mr. Drury of Shotover Park. He earned money also, and from the age of sixteen defrayed the greater part of the household expenses in Gower Street, where he lived with his family. In 1845 he was engaged to paint small pictures and backgrounds for a dealer named Ralph Thomas for 100l. a year. He recorded his delight