Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/186

 he was shooting with Sir William Harcourt near Inverary, and afterwards visited Florence and Italy in company with Sir William and his wife, and in 1868 he was shooting again with Sir William and with Sir Edwin Landseer, and went with Mr. Frith to Paris, where they made the acquaintance of Rosa Bonheur.

'Chill October,' his first exhibited pure landscape, afterwards bought by Lord Armstrong, was at the academy in 1871, and was painted in the open air from a backwater of the Tay just below Kinfauns, near Perth. It was followed by 'Scotch Firs' and 'Winter Fuel,' painted in 1874, 'The Fringe of the Moor' (1875), 'Over the Hills and Far Away' and 'The Sound of many Waters' (1876), all of which were equally remarkable for their truth to nature and fine execution, but they were without the pathetic sentiment of 'Chill October.' It was to portrait and landscape that he devoted himself mainly after 1870, and to single figures of children and pretty girls under fancy titles like Cherry Ripe,' 'Little Miss Muffet,' 'Cuckoo,' 'Pomona,' 'Olivia,' and many more which were very popular in engravings and in coloured prints for the illustrated newspapers. None of these paintings were perhaps more beautiful or popular than 'Sweetest eyes were ever seen,' 'Caller Herrin',' and 'Cinderella,' for which Miss Beatrice Buxton sat. Inspired by a stronger sentiment were 'The North- West Passage' (1874), 'The Princes in the Tower' (1878), The Princess Elizabeth' (1879), and two illustrations of Scott, 'Effie Deans' and 'The Master of Ravenswood,' painted for Messrs. Agnew in 1877 and 1878. 'The North- West Passage' represents a determined old mariner (a portrait of Edward John Trelawny [q.v.]) in a room overlooking the sea and strewn with charts. He listens to a young woman who is reading some tale of Arctic exploration. The artist never painted a finer head than that of the sailor, and the execution throughout is so fine that the picture is regarded by some as his masterpiece. 'A Yeoman of the Guard' (1877), with his age-worn face and uniform of scarlet and gold, is as strong in character, and perhaps the artist's most splendid effort as a colourist. It was, however, as a portrait painter that he added most to his great reputation during the last twenty-five years of his life. Among his most celebrated sitters were the Marquises of Salisbury, Hartington (Duke of Devonshire), and Lorne (Duke of Argyll), the Earls of Shaftesbury, Beaconsfield, and Rosebery, Lord Tennyson, W. E. Gladstone, John Bright, Sir Charles Russell (Lord Russell of Killowen), Cardinal Newman, George Grote, Sir William Sterndale Bennett, Sir James Paget, Sir Henry Thompson, Thomas Carlyle, Wilkie Collins, Sir Henry Irving, J. C. Hook, R.A., and Du Maurier, one of the most intimate of all his friends. All these portraits are lifelike and powerful, giving the very presence of the originals, and inspiring even their clothes with individuality. He was never more successful than in realising the grand head and keen expression of W. E. Gladstone, whom he painted in 1879, 1885, and 1890. He drew Charles Dickens after his death. He was on very friendly terms with Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Rosebery, and indeed with nearly all his sitters.

Among his best portraits of ladies may be mentioned 'Hearts are Trumps' (the three Misses Armstrong), Mrs. Coventry Patmore, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Mrs. F. H. Myers, Mrs. Stibbard (his wife's sister), Mrs. Jopling, the Duchess of Westminster, and Lady Campbell. To his portraits of children already mentioned may be added Miss Dorothy Thorpe, Lady Peggy Primrose (afterwards Countess of Crewe), and the Princess Marie of Edinburgh, which belonged to Queen Victoria.

In 1875 Millais took a trip to Holland with some of his wife's family, and was greatly impressed by the masterpieces of Rembrandt, Franz Hals, and Van der Heist. In 1878 Millais was represented at the Paris Exhibition by 'Chill October,' 'A Yeoman of the Guard,' 'Madam Bischoffsheim,' 'Hearts are Trumps,' and 'The Bride of Lammermoor,' which greatly increased his reputation in France, and he was made an officer of the legion of honour. In this year came the greatest sorrow of his life in the loss of his second son, George, who had nearly completed his twenty-first year. In 1879 he left Cromwell Place for a house built for him at Palace Gate from the designs of Philip Charles Hardwick, where he remained till he died. In 1880 he painted his own portrait for the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. He still paid his annual visit to Scotland, and in 1881 took a house at Murthly, Little Dunkeld, Perthshire, with good fishing and shooting. At Murthly or its neighbourhood all his other landscapes were painted : 'Murthly Moss,' 'Murthly Water,' 'Dew-drenched Furze,' 'Lingering Autumn,' and others. In 1881 a small exhibition of his pictures was held by the Fine Art Society. On 16 July 1885, at Gladstone's suggestion, he was created a baronet,