Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/182

 at receiving his first cheque (still preserved) by endorsing it with a drawing of himself. They fell out, and Millais threw his palette at Thomas, and so ended the connection for a while, but it was afterwards renewed (though not for long) at an increased salary of 150l. a year.

In 1846 Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time. The subject of his picture was 'Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru.' This was followed in 1847 by 'Elgiva seized by the Soldiers of Odo.' John (known as Lester) Wallack, the actor [see under, ad fin.], who married Millais's sister, sat for Pizarro. In 1847 also he entered unsuccessfully into the competition at Westminster Hall for the decoration of the houses of parliament, sending an oil picture of 'The Widow's Mite' (ten feet seven inches by fourteen feet three inches), since cut up. He did not exhibit at the academy in 1848.

Down to this time his career had differed from those of other academy students only by its distinguished success, and his pictures had shown little if any divergence from the ordinary ideals and methods taught in the schools; but about the beginning of 1848 he and Mr. Holman Hunt, deeply conscious of the lifeless condition into which British art had fallen, determined to adopt a style of absolute independence as to art dogma and convention, which they called 'Pre-Raphaelitism.' The next to join the movement was Dante Gabriel Rossetti [q.v.], who at this time was struggling with the technical difficulties of painting under the instruction of Holman Hunt, but was unknown to Millais. The three met together at the Millaises' house in Gower Street, where Millais showed them engravings from the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and all agreed to 'follow' them. The result was the formation of the celebrated 'Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,' consisting of seven members. There has been much dispute as to what were the precise principles of the brotherhood ; but, according to Millais, 'the Pre-Raphaelites had but one idea, to present on canvas what they saw in nature,' and to this idea he adhered from first to last. Another disputed point is the influence of Rossetti on Millais's earlier work. This was entirely denied by Millais himself; but it was probably greater than he knew, for Rossetti's picture of 'The Girlhood of Mary Virgin ' was clearly the fore-runner of Millais's 'Christ in the House of his Parents,' and there was a spirit of poetical romance in Millais's work while their closest intercourse lasted (1848-52) which slowly faded away afterwards. The intense intellectual and spiritual influence of Rossetti ore the brotherhood generally cannot be denied. He was the ruling spirit of their short-lived organ, 'The Germ' (2 parts, 1850), for which Millais made one or two sketches and an etching and wrote a story, though none of them appeared. (A copy of the etching will be found in 'British Contemporary Artists.') On the other hand Millais was very independent and impatient of control, and would not read the first volume of 'Modern Painters' (1841), in which principles like those practically followed by the Pre-Raphaelites were first recommended to young artists. It is also to be remembered that Rossetti was at this time a mere tyro in painting, whereas Millais was a trained artist, and that of love of nature and skill in expressing it Millais could learn nothing from Rossetti.

At all events it is quite certain that Mr. Holman Hunt and Millais were most intimately associated in all their views and in their practice. They had worked together in complete sympathy from the days of their studentship, and they together started the new movement. The depth of the gulf between it and the old is clearly seen if we compare the 'Pizarro' of 1846 with the 'Isabella' of 1849 a banquet scene from Keats's poem of 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' founded on a story by Boccaccio. In this nearly all the characters were painted from his relatives and friends. Among them were three at least of the brotherhood, the two Rossettis, Dante and William, and Mr. F. G. Stephens, and it contains all the characteristics of 'Pre-Raphaelite' work most minute imitation of nature down to the smallest detail, all persons and objects studied directly from the originals, and disregard of composition, generalisation, and all convention. The tale was told with dramatic power, and the expression of the heads, with the exception of the lovesick Lorenzo, was excellent. Millais never again painted a composition of so many figures, or of greater patience and success in execution. The picture was bought by Mr. Windus, was for a time in the possession of Thomas Woolner [q.v.], the sculptor (and one of the brethren), and is now in the gallery of the corporation of Liverpool. It was exhibited in 1849.

Millais's next important picture was a supposed scene in Christ's childhood, treated as an incident in the ordinary life of a carpenter's family. It is usually known as 'The Carpenter's Shop,' or 'Christ in the House of his Parents;' but in the catalogue of the Royal Academy it had, in place of a title, a quotation from Zechariah xiii. 6. The boy has wounded the palm of his hand with a