Millais at Tate Britain

[Image: John Everett Millais:
‘The tower of strength which stood / Four-square to all the winds that blew’; 1878-9;
Oil on canvas]

A friend of mine recommended that I go to the Millais exhibition, which is currently on at the Tate Britain. I am kind of lukewarm on Pre-Raphaelites… but today, nevertheless, I went to the exhibition – after I had handed in my major project at 10:40 am this morning at college…

The exhibition is amazing and I am now a big fan of Millais, in particular of his portraits of women (which are very photographic, there is a lot one can learn from them in terms of the use of colour and composition) and his late landscapes. The late landscapes are just mind-blowing. The last room of the exhibition (room 7) is solely dedicated to a series of landscapes Millais painted in Scotland almost at the end of his life… They are nearly all autumnal or winter landscapes, probably reflecting Millais’ stage in life at the time of painting. The light he used in the paintings is just magical. The entire gallery room radiates from the paintings… I think I spent a lot of time just in the last room…

I particularly like the painting depicted here. He painted it after his second born son George died just at the age of 22 of Typhoid fever and Millais retreated to Scotland to get over the loss of his beloved son… Obviously it is full of symbolism… The brooding sky, the river, the boatman like the boatman ferrying the dead over the river Styx…

Unfortunately, the reproductions in the accompanying exhibition catalogue are nowhere near the originals… which means that the exhibition is definitely worth a visit.