Millais And His Talents Made Other Realist Painters Doubt About His Realist Technique
Millais and His Talents Made Other Realist Painters Doubt about His Realist Technique
To make this paper easy to follow let me briefly describe the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, their beginnings, their philosophy or intentions towards art, and the original members who started the movement. By doing so, you will get the essence of my paper. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood or (PRB) was a 19th century group of rebellious young artists who, disillusioned with the artist climate of their day. They sought to discover the purity of art by creating an entirely new artist style that drew upon the middle ages, the bible, classical mythology, and nature for inspiration. They thought this would be accomplished by emulating the work of the great Italian artists before Raphael (hence this is where their name comes). "This group of artists, organized in 1848, wished to create fresh and sincere art, free from what they considered to be the tired and artificial manner propagated by the successor of the Raphael in the Academies (Tanskey and Kleiner p. 975)." The principal founders were D. G. Rossetti, W. Holman Hunt, and John E. Millais. However, I will be concentrated in the youngest of the members, John Everett Millais. "Out of all the Pre- Raphaelites Millais was the most technically brilliant and talented.1" Millais absorbed the styles of his members and quickly he developed an independent style of his own. Millais technique was a realist, however realist would complain that the subject was not, did he really reflect other movement in his painting?
John Everett Millais was born in Southampton on June 8, 1829. Millais came from a Jersey family who was very supportive about his life. As soon as the family discovered his talents as a child they moved to London where they sought a better opportunity for his profession would arise. At the early age of 9 (1838) ha attended Henry Sass' Drawing School and two years later he was...
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