John Everett Millais: A Biography

A child prodigy who grew up to be one of the most popular, most controversial and least understood painters in Victorian England, Millais (1829-1896), was the leading light of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Though less than exhaustive, Fleming's biography fills a significant void in our understanding of the man and his work. At the age of 19, Millais joined forces with fellow artists Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti to create the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The term ""Pre-Raphaelite"" was somewhat unfortunate: rather than referring to a specifically medieval style, the word was intended to signify the artists' determination to paint what they actually saw. Indeed, Millais's most outstanding work was painted outdoors. Fleming documents the abuse the Pre-Raphaelites took from the British press, who, like the general public, could not comprehend art that was not tied to historical or literary sources. In part because of such attitudes, Millais turned to portrait painting for the last 30 years of his life. A second reason he accepted commissioned work was the considerable expense of supporting his eight children. Scandalously, he had married his wife, Effie, after the annulment of her marriage to the art critic John Ruskin. That m nage trois has been well documented (Mary Lutyens's Millais and the Ruskins is one excellent source), but otherwise, Millais's life has not. Fleming (Whistler: The Man and His Work) leaves the reader wanting more about Millais's seemingly suffocating parents, about his personal contradictions (a parsimonious man, he was also a gambler) and about his views on the true rebels of 19th-century English art, Turner and Whistler. Millais's turbulent artistic era and personal dramas warrant a full-scale biography, complete with color plates and a fuller representation of the correspondence. Until such a book appears, Fleming's abbreviated yet lively account will remain a valuable resource. B&w illus. (July)