John Everett Millais: 11 works

'Millais, along with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. These painters grew in fame in the 1850s, and Millais was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853.'

'John Everett Millais seems to be emphasising how his art challenges the Victorian taste for Renaissance art.'

'The Jacobite's wife hands an order of release to the gaoler.Millais based the figure of the woman on his wife, Effie. He was very interested in female psychology and the woman's detached gaze suggests her quiet determination.'

'Millais began painting the landscape for The Blind Girl on a visit to Winchelsea in Sussex in 1854.'

'The subject matter and technique are typical of the Pre-Raphaelite movement founded by Millais. Although he wanted to express a moral seriousness in his work, the drama is unconvincing: the figures are stiff and too large for the room they inhabit.'

'The picture has the loose and painterly handling of Millais' late manner, quite different from the sharp focus of his Pre-Raphaelite style.'

'Millais painted this picture in 1874 when another English expedition was setting off.'

'Millais shows him the uniform of the yeomen, usually known as 'Beefeaters'. The painting was done in 1876, when Millais was then at the height of his fame.'

'The Art Journal in 1885 noted this picture as 'interesting as...the first subject painted by (Millais) with the aid of spectacles; in consequence probably it is remarkable for the delicacy of its execution'.'

'Millais's title comes from Tennyson's 'In Memoriam A.H.H.', 1850, written in response to the early death of the poet's friend Arthur Hallam. Millais may also have shared Tennyson's opinion that, though a work may be inspired by personal experience, its emotions are universal: '"I" is not always the author speaking of himself, but the voice of the human race speaking through him'.'

'Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind is from the end of Millais's career, and is part of a number of wintry landscape scenes painted when he and his family were staying in a house near Perth in Scotland.'