MILLAIS, John Everett

Millais was a child prodigy, he studied at Sass’s drawing school and at the age of ten was the youngest pupil ever to enroll at the Royal Academy Schools. Together with Hunt and Rosetti, he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose aim was to reintroduce a style of fresh Christian sincerity painted
with detailed clarity.

His paintings exhibited technical brilliance and reflected the Victorian taste for rich decorative craftsmanship. He became a fashionable society painter who completed numerous portrait commissions and produced illustrations for many popular magazines and books. In 1885 he was the first English artist to be made a Baronet. He died in 1896, a few months after being elected President of the Royal Academy.