Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/185

 from which he moved to 7 Cromwell Place, South Kensington, in 1862. In 1860 he exhibited 'The Black Brunswicker,' a parting scene between an officer and his fiancee before the battle of Waterloo. The officer was painted from a private in the life guards, and the lady from Miss Kate Dickens (Mrs. Perugini), the daughter of Charles Dickens. The picture was less refined in conception than his other historic love scenes, 'The Huguenot' and 'Proscribed Royalist,' but it was painted with great skill, and may be said to terminate the period of transition from his first or Pre-Raphaelite manner, and that of complete breadth and freedom. Other changes besides that of style begin to be more marked. He became less sedulous in his search for subjects, less romantic in his feeling, more content to paint the life about him, without drawing much upon his imagination, or even his faculty for refined selection. The portrait element, always strong in his work, became stronger, and his family furnished ready subjects for many pictures. At the same time his invention was much employed in illustration, especially of Trollope's novels, 'Orley Farm,' 'Framley Parsonage,' 'The Small House at Allington,' 'Rachel Ray,' and 'Phineas Finn,' for which he made eighty-seven drawings, beginning with 'Framley Parsonage ' in the 'Cornhill Magazine.' Trollope was one of his friends at this time with Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, and John Leech. From 1860 to 1869 he was continually employed in designs to be cut upon wood for Bradbury & Evans, Macmillan, Hurst & Blackett, Chapman & Hall, Smith, Elder, & Co., Dalziel Bros., Mr. Gambart, Moxon (the illustrated edition of Tennyson). He was one of the most prolific and the cleverest of all the book illustrators of this period, so celebrated for its revival of woodcutting, and one or more cuts from his designs are to be found in 'Once a Week,' 'The Cornhill,' 'Punch,' 'The Illustrated London News,' 'Good Words,' 'London Society,' and many books. Later in life (1879) he illustrated 'Barry Lyndon' for the edition de luxe of Thackeray's works. He also made many water-colour replicas of his pictures. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1863. Among the most celebrated historical and poetical pictures of this period (1860-70) were 'The Eve of St. Agnes' (1863), 'Romans leaving Britain' and 'The Evil One sowing Tares' (1865), 'Jephthah' (1867), 'Rosalind and Celia' (1868), 'A Flood,' 'The Boyhood of Raleigh,' and 'The Knight Errant' (1870). The subject of 'The Eve of St. Agnes' is taken from Keats's poem. The heroine is his wife, and the moonlit room in which 'her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees' is at Knole House, Kent. It was painted in five days and a half, in December 1862, and is one of the finest of his works. It now belongs to Mr. Val Prinsep, R.A. 'The Knight Errant' is remarkable from the fine execution of a full-length life-size female figure, the only one to be found in the artist's works. Of the others the most successful, perhaps, were 'The Evil One sowing Tares,' a version in oils of one of a fine series of designs for ' The Parables of Our Lord,' published by Bradbury & Evans, 'A Flood' (a child carried in its wooden cradle down the swollen stream), and 'The Boyhood of Raleigh,' in which two boys (his own sons Everett and George) are listening to the strange tales of a sailor returned from the Spanish main. The newest element in his work of this period was supplied from his own nursery, which afforded subjects for many very popular pictures, like 'My First Sermon,' 'My Second Sermon,' 'Sleeping,' 'Waking,' 'Sisters,' 'The First Minuet,' and 'The Wolfs Den.'

Portraits of other children were also among his greatest successes, like 'Leisure Hours,' the daughters of Sir John Pender with a bowl of goldfish, and 'Miss Nina Lehmann' (Lady Campbell). Most of his pictures were now single figures, with more or less sentiment, like 'Stella' and 'Vanessa,' 'The Gambler's Wife,' 'The Widow's Mite,' and 'Swallow, Swallow.' A more important composition, 'Pilgrims to St. Paul's' (Greenwich pensioners before Nelson's tomb), appealed to national feeling. Technically he had reached full maturity, evidently exulting in his command over his materials and indulging occasionally in a rivalry with the broadest style of Velazquez, as in ' Vanessa,' and 'A Souvenir of Velazquez,' his diploma picture. Belonging to this period, though not exhibited till 1871, was the grandest of his biblical pictures called 'Victory, Lord,' representing Aaron and Hur holding up the hands of Moses on the top of the hill (Exodus xvii. 12).

While at work no one worked harder than Millais, but no one enjoyed his holidays more, or was more convinced of the importance of long and thorough ones. Every year he spent some months in the country, usually in Scotland, where he could indulge his love of shooting and salmon fishing. Most, if not all, of his pure landscapes were also painted there. In 1856 he took the manse of Brig-o'-Turk in Glenfinlas, and in 1860 the shooting of Kincraig, Inverness-shire, with Colonel Aitkin. In 1865