| Sir John Everett Millais was born in Southampton in | | | | an article in The Times, supporting the young artists |
| 1829. His parents were well known and successful | | | | and it was not long before Millais and Ruskin got to |
| people. They moved to Jersey for a while and then | | | | know each other. Ruskin, his wile Effie and Millais |
| to London in 1838 in order to help their son develop | | | | went on a holiday to Scotland and a strong attraction |
| his art career. Millais became the youngest ever | | | | developed between Millais and Effie, an acrimonious |
| student at the Royal Academy in 1840, and was | | | | divorce followed, Effie and Millais married in 1855 and |
| known as "The child", and his talent caused envy | | | | quickly had eight children. Even so, Ruskin provided |
| among the other students. He was very agile on his | | | | critical support for this young painter. |
| feet and afraid of nothing and this helped him survive | | | | After the marriage, Millais' style changed, and he was |
| the time at the Academy. He made lifelong friends at | | | | no longer economically possible to spend so much |
| the Royal Academy in William Holman Hunt and Dante | | | | time on each painting. Some of the detail was no |
| Gabriel Rosetti. This meeting caused the beginnings of | | | | longer included, but it was in keeping with the style |
| the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhod. | | | | that was eagerly purchased. He also started painting |
| Millais is regarded by many as the most gifted of the | | | | portraits and is regarded as one of the best English |
| three, and his attention to detail and long painting | | | | portrait painters. Many have debated the economic |
| time for his works produced some amazing scenes. It | | | | circumstances paved the way for the new style and |
| is said the he would paint outside landscapes in | | | | the world lost a great painter. In 1885, he was the |
| summer and in winter add the figures. | | | | first English painter to be made a Baronet. |
| A quote from Millais himself in 1888 describes some | | | | In his later years, Millais could see that the quality of |
| of his technique: | | | | his work was declining. In 1892, he thought that he |
| "For my own part, I have often been labored, but | | | | had influenza, but it turned out to be throat cancer, |
| whatever I am I am never careless. I may honestly | | | | which he had contracted because of many years as |
| say that I have never placed on idle touch on | | | | a heavy pipe smoker. His health continued to |
| canvas; and that I have always been honest and | | | | deteriorate. In 1896, Queen Victoria, asked if there |
| hardworking; yet the worst pictures I ever painted in | | | | was anything that she could do. Millais asked if his |
| my life are those into which I threw the most trouble | | | | wife could be accepted by her, as she had been |
| and labor, and I confess that I should not grieve | | | | excluded because of a scandal associated with the |
| were half my works to go to the bottom of the | | | | annulment of her first marriage. She became Lady |
| Atlantic-if I might choose the half to go." | | | | Millais. He died a few months later. |
| His early works, as with the early works of the other | | | | After his death, many wrote against Millais for a |
| Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, were not accepted well. | | | | variety of reasons, but in the end he produced some |
| A prominent art critic of the day John Ruskin wrote | | | | amazing pieces of art that are still appreciated today. |