1.
Southampton
–
Southampton, on the south coast of England, is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire. It is 75 miles south-west of London and 19 miles north-west of Portsmouth, Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest. It lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the confluence of the Rivers Test and Itchen, the city, which is a unitary authority, has an estimated population of 253,651. The citys name is abbreviated in writing to Soton or Soton. Significant employers in the city include the University of Southampton, Southampton Solent University, Southampton Airport, Ordnance Survey, BBC South, Southampton has a large shopping centre and retail park, Westquay. In 2014, the city approved a follow-up from the Westquay park, WestQuay Watermark. This built-up area is part of the area known as South Hampshire. With a population of over 1.5 million this makes the one of the United Kingdoms most populous metropolitan areas. Archaeological finds suggest that the area has been inhabited since the stone age, following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43 and the conquering of the local Britons in 70 AD the fortress settlement of Clausentum was established. It was an important trading port and defensive outpost of Winchester, Clausentum was defended by a wall and two ditches and is thought to have contained a bath house. Clausentum was not abandoned until around 410, the Anglo-Saxons formed a new, larger, settlement across the Itchen centred on what is now the St Marys area of the city. The settlement was known as Hamwic, which evolved into Hamtun, archaeological excavations of this site have uncovered one of the best collections of Saxon artefacts in Europe. It is from this town that the county of Hampshire gets its name, viking raids from 840 onwards contributed to the decline of Hamwic in the 9th century, and by the 10th century a fortified settlement, which became medieval Southampton, had been established. Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, Southampton became the port of transit between the then capital of England, Winchester, and Normandy. By the 13th century Southampton had become a port, particularly involved in the import of French wine in exchange for English cloth. The Franciscan friary in Southampton was founded circa 1233, the friars constructed a water supply system in 1290, which carried water from Conduit Head some 1.7 kilometres to the site of the friary inside the town walls. Further remains can be observed at Conduit House on Commercial Road, the friars granted use of the water to the town in 1310. The town was sacked in 1338 by French, Genoese and Monegasque ships, on visiting Southampton in 1339, Edward III ordered that walls be built to close the town
Southampton
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Montage of Southampton. Clockwise from top-left: Bargate; Guilldhall; Top of west walls; Wool house and custom house; Southwestern house
Southampton
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Logo of the City Council
Southampton
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Part of Southampton's Town Walls
Southampton
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The memorial to the engineers of the
Titanic
2.
England
–
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
England
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Stonehenge, a
Neolithic monument
England
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Flag
England
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Boudica led an uprising against the
Roman Empire
England
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Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial
helmet from the
Kingdom of East Anglia, found at
Sutton Hoo
3.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The British
HMS Sandwich fires into the French
flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) during
Trafalgar. The Bucentaure also fights
HMS Victory (behind her) and
HMS Temeraire (left side of the picture). In fact, HMS Sandwich never fought at Trafalgar, it's a mistake by
Auguste Mayer, the painter.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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Flag
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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Signing of the
Treaty of Ghent (1814), by A. Forestier c. 1915
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The Duke of Wellington
4.
Kensington
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Kensington is an affluent district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. Its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, the affluent and densely populated area contains the major museum district of South Kensington, which has the Royal Albert Hall for music and nearby Royal College of Music. The area is home to many of Londons European embassies, the first mention of the area is in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written in Latin as Chenesitone, which has been interpreted to have originally been Kenesignetun in Anglo-Saxon. A variation may be Kesyngton, in 1396 and he in turn granted the tenancy of Kensington to his vassal Aubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor in 1086, according to Domesday Book. The bishops heir, Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against William Rufus, Aubrey de Vere I had his tenure converted to a tenancy in-chief, holding Kensington after 1095 directly of the crown. He granted land and church there to Abingdon Abbey at the deathbed request of his young eldest son, Geoffrey. As the Veres became the earls of Oxford, their estate at Kensington came to be known as Earls Court, while the Abingdon lands were called Abbots Kensington and the church St Mary Abbots. The original Kensington Barracks, built at Kensington Gate in the late 18th century, were demolished in 1858, the focus of the area is Kensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared Londons second best shopping street in February 2005 thanks to its range, however, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City. Kensingtons second group of buildings is at South Kensington, where several streets of small to medium-sized shops. This is also the end of Exhibition Road, the thoroughfare that serves the areas museums. To the west, a border is kept along the line of the Counter Creek marked by the West London railway line, in the north east, the large Royal Park of Kensington Gardens is a green buffer. The other main area in Kensington is Holland Park, just north of Kensington High Street. Kensington is, in general, an affluent area, a trait that it now shares with its neighbour to the south. In early 2007, houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens for in excess of £20 million, Kensington is also very densely populated, it forms part of the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density is not formed from high-rise buildings, instead, unlike northern extremities of the Borough, Kensington lacks high-rise buildings except for the Holiday Inns London Kensington Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road, which is a 27-storey building. The Olympia exhibition hall is just over the border in West Kensington. Kensington is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the head office of newspaper group DMGT is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, which is the office part of the large Barkers building
Kensington
–
Kensington
Kensington
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A picture of Kensington taken by scientist Sir Norman Lockyer in 1909 from a helium balloon. (This is a mirrored image of Kensington)
Kensington
–
Kensington Gardens in the summer
Kensington
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Northcliffe House, head office of the
Daily Mail and General Trust
5.
Royal Academy of Art
–
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
Royal Academy of Art
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Royal Academy of Arts
Royal Academy of Art
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Satiric drawing of Sir William Chambers, one of the founders, trying to slay the 8-headed hydra of the Incorporated Society of Artists
Royal Academy of Art
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Study for
Henry Singleton 's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.
Royal Academy of Art
–
An early
RA Summer Exhibition at the Academy's original home in
Somerset House
6.
Printmaking
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Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print produced is not considered a copy but rather is considered an original, a print may be known as an impression. Printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to multiple impressions. Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process, other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Multiple impressions printed from the matrix form an edition. Prints may also be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artists books, Printmaking techniques are generally divided into the following basic categories, Relief, where ink is applied to the original surface of the matrix. Relief techniques include woodcut or woodblock as the Asian forms are known, wood engraving. Intaglio, where ink is applied beneath the surface of the matrix. Intaglio techniques include engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, planographic, where the matrix retains its original surface, but is specially prepared and/or inked to allow for the transfer of the image. Planographic techniques include lithography, monotyping, and digital techniques, stencil, where ink or paint is pressed through a prepared screen, including screenprinting and pochoir. Other types of printmaking techniques outside these groups include collagraphy and viscosity printing, collagraphy is a printmaking technique in which textured material is adhered to the printing matrix. This texture is transferred to the paper during the printing process, Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing, photographic mediums, or a combination of digital, photographic, and traditional processes. Many of these techniques can also be combined, especially within the same family, for example, Rembrandts prints are usually referred to as etchings for convenience, but very often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, and sometimes have no etching at all. Woodcut, a type of print, is the earliest printmaking technique. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Japan, and slightly later in Europe. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text, the artist draws a design on a plank of wood, or on paper which is transferred to the wood
Printmaking
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Rembrandt,
Self-portrait,
etching, c.1630.
Printmaking
–
Mount Fuji, from the
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, color
woodcut by
Katsushika Hokusai
Printmaking
–
Francisco Goya, There is No One To Help Them,
Disasters of War series,
aquatint c.1810.
Printmaking
–
External video
7.
Ophelia (painting)
–
Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. It is held in the Tate Britain in London and it depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeares play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. The work was not highly regarded when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, the painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude, the episode depicted is not seen onstage, but exists only in Gertrudes description. Ophelia has fallen into the river from a tree overhanging it and she lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger. Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to stay afloat. But eventually, her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pulld the poor wretch from her melodious lay down to muddy death, Ophelias death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature. Ophelias pose—her open arms and upwards gaze—also resembles traditional portrayals of saints or martyrs, the painting is known for its depiction of the detailed flora of the river and the riverbank, stressing the patterns of growth and decay in a natural ecosystem. Despite its nominal Danish setting, the landscape has come to be seen as quintessentially English, Ophelia was painted along the banks of the Hogsmill River in Surrey, near Tolworth, Greater London. Millais close colleague William Holman Hunt was at the working on his The Hireling Shepherd nearby. The flowers shown floating on the river were chosen to correspond with Shakespeares description of Ophelias garland and they also reflect the Victorian interest in the language of flowers, according to which each flower carries a symbolic meaning. The prominent red poppy—not mentioned by Shakespeares description of the scene—represents sleep, at an early stage in the paintings creation, Millais painted a water vole—which an assistant had fished out of the Hogsmill—paddling next to Ophelia. In December 1851, he showed the painting to Holman Hunts relatives. He recorded in his diary, Hunts uncle and aunt came, the male relation, when invited to guess at it, eagerly pronounced it to be a hare. Perceiving by our smiles that he had made a mistake, a rabbit was then hazarded, after which I have a faint recollection of a dog or a cat being mentioned. Millais painted the water out of the final picture, although a rough sketch of it still exists in an upper corner of the canvas hidden by its frame. In keeping with the tenets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which he was a member, Millais used bright colours, gave high attention to detail, also, Millais utilizes bright, intense colours in the landscape to make the pale Ophelia contrast with the nature behind her. All this is evident in the attention to detail in the brush and trees around Ophelia, the contouring of her face
Ophelia (painting)
–
Ophelia
Ophelia (painting)
–
Photograph of
John Everett Millais
Ophelia (painting)
–
The alleged skull in the foliage
Ophelia (painting)
–
An 1854 self-portrait by
Elizabeth Siddal, who acted as Millais' model for Ophelia.
8.
Christ in the House of His Parents
–
Christ in the House of His Parents is a painting by John Everett Millais depicting the Holy Family in Saint Josephs carpentry workshop. The painting was controversial when first exhibited, prompting many negative reviews. It catapulted the previously obscure Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to notoriety and was a contributor to the debate about Realism in the arts. It is currently housed in the Tate Britain in London, the painting depicts the young Jesus assisting Joseph in his workshop. Joseph is making a door, which is laid upon his carpentry work-table, Jesus has cut his hand on an exposed nail, symbolizing the stigmata and foreshadowing Jesus crucifixion. As his grandmother, Anne, removes the nail with a pair of pincers, his mother, Mary, offers her cheek for a kiss. A young boy, who would later be known as John the Baptist, brings in water to wash the wound, an assistant of Josephs, who represents Jesus future Apostles and chroniclers observes these events. In the background of the various objects are used to further symbolize the theological significance of the subject. A ladder, referring to Jacobs Ladder, leans against the wall. Other carpentry implements refer to the Holy Trinity, Millais likely used Albrecht Dürers print Melancholia I as a source for this imagery, along with quattrocento works. The sheep in the sheepfold seen through the door represent the future Christian flock and it has been suggested that Millais was influenced by John Rogers Herberts painting Our Saviour Subject to His Parents at Nazareth. He may also have drawn on a painting depicting Jesus helping Joseph in his workshop, the painting was immensely controversial when first exhibited because of its realistic depiction of a carpentry workshop, especially the dirt and detritus on the floor. This was in dramatic contrast to the portrayal of Jesus, his family. Charles Dickens accused Millais of portraying Mary as an alcoholic who looks. so hideous in her ugliness that and she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England. Critics also objected to the portrayal of Jesus, one complaining that it was painful to see the youthful Saviour depicted as a red-headed Jew boy. Dickens described him as a wry-necked, blubbering red-headed boy in a bed-gown, other critics suggested that the characters displayed signs of rickets and other disease associated with slum conditions. Because of the controversy, Queen Victoria asked for the painting to be taken to Buckingham Palace so that she could view it in private and this was entitled A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids. The effect of the comments was to make the Pre-Raphaelite movement famous
Christ in the House of His Parents
–
Christ in the House of His Parents
Christ in the House of His Parents
–
External video
9.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
–
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member brotherhood and their principles were shared by other artists, including Marie Spartali Stillman and Ford Madox Brown. A later, medievalising strain inspired by Rossetti included Edward Burne-Jones, the groups intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been an influence on the academic teaching of art. In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, to the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, sloshy meant anything lax or scamped in the process of painting. Any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind, the brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English critic whose influences were driven by his religious background, the group continued to accept the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a movement, created a distinct name for their form of art. The groups debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in John Millaiss parents house on Gower Street, London in 1848. At the first meeting, the painters John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hunt and Millais were students at the Royal Academy of Arts and had met in another loose association, the Cyclographic Club, a sketching society. At his own request Rossetti became a pupil of Ford Madox Brown in 1848, at that date, Rossetti and Hunt shared lodgings in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, Central London. Hunt had started painting The Eve of St. Agnes based on Keatss poem of the same name, as an aspiring poet, Rossetti wished to develop the links between Romantic poetry and art. Ford Madox Brown was invited to join, but the more senior artist remained independent but supported the group throughout the PRB period of Pre-Raphaelitism, other young painters and sculptors became close associates, including Charles Allston Collins, Thomas Tupper, and Alexander Munro. The PRB intended to keep the existence of the secret from members of the Royal Academy. The principles were deliberately non-dogmatic, since the brotherhood wished to emphasise the personal responsibility of artists to determine their own ideas. Influenced by Romanticism, the members thought freedom and responsibility were inseparable, nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by medieval culture, believing it to possess a spiritual and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of realism which stress the independent observation of nature, in its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions. The realists were led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalists were led by Rossetti and his followers, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
–
Proserpine, by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
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Christ in the House of His Parents, by John Everett Millais, 1850
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
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Illustration by Holman Hunt of Thomas Woolner's poem "My Beautiful Lady", published in The Germ, 1850
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
–
Ophelia, by
John Everett Millais
10.
Effie Gray
–
Euphemia Chalmers Effie Millais, Lady Millais née Gray was the wife of the critic John Ruskin, but she left her husband without the marriage being consummated. She later married his protégé, the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais and this famous Victorian love triangle has been dramatised in plays, films and an opera. Effie Gray, initially known by the pet name of Phemy, was born in Perth, Scotland, and lived in Bowerswell and her family knew Ruskins father, who encouraged a match between them. Ruskin wrote the fantasy novel The King of the Golden River for her in 1841, after their marriage in 1848, they travelled to Venice, where Ruskin was researching his book The Stones of Venice. Their different personalities are thrown into relief by their contrasting priorities. For Effie, Venice provided an opportunity to socialise while Ruskin was engaged in solitary studies, in particular, he made a point of drawing the Ca dOro and the Palazzo Ducale, because he feared they would soon be destroyed by the occupying Austrian troops. One of the troops, Lieutenant Charles Paulizza, made friends with Effie and her brother, among others, later claimed that Ruskin was deliberately encouraging the friendship to compromise her, as an excuse to separate. When she met Millais five years later, she was still a virgin and his reasons are unclear, but they involved disgust with some aspect of her body. As she later wrote to her father, He alleged various reasons, hatred to children, religious motives, a desire to preserve my beauty, and, finally this last year he told me his true reason. That he had imagined women were different to what he saw I was. Ruskin confirmed this in his statement to his lawyer during the annulment proceedings, but though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were circumstances in her person which completely checked it. The reason for Ruskins disgust with circumstances in her person is unknown, various suggestions have been made, including revulsion at either her pubic hair, or menstrual blood. While married to Ruskin, she modelled for Millais painting The Order of Release and she then became close to Millais when he accompanied the couple on a trip to Scotland in order to paint Ruskins portrait according to the critics artistic principles. During this time, spent in Brig o Turk in the Trossachs, while working on the portrait of her husband, Millais made many drawings and sketches of her. He also sent humorous cartoons of himself, Effie and Ruskin to friends and she copied some of his works. After their return to London, she left Ruskin, nominally to visit her family and she sent back her wedding ring with a note announcing her intention to file for an annulment. Their youngest son, John Guille Millais, was a bird artist
Effie Gray
–
Effie Gray painted by
Thomas Richmond. She thought the portrait made her look like "a graceful Doll".
Effie Gray
–
Albumen print photograph by
Lewis Carroll from 21 July 1865 depicting Effie Gray,
John Everett Millais, and their daughters Effie and Mary at 7 Cromwell Place, signed "Effie C. Millais".
Effie Gray
–
Effie at Glenfinlas, sketch by Millais
Effie Gray
–
Gray in middle age, painted by Millais. She is holding a copy of the
Cornhill Magazine.
11.
Royal Academy
–
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
Royal Academy
–
Royal Academy of Arts
Royal Academy
–
Satiric drawing of Sir William Chambers, one of the founders, trying to slay the 8-headed hydra of the Incorporated Society of Artists
Royal Academy
–
Study for
Henry Singleton 's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.
Royal Academy
–
An early
RA Summer Exhibition at the Academy's original home in
Somerset House
12.
John Ruskin
–
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and his writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin also penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters, the elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society and he also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. He was hugely influential in the half of the 19th century. After a period of decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability, from the 1850s he championed the Pre-Raphaelites who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues, Unto This Last marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, in 1871, he began his monthly letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain, published under the title Fors Clavigera. In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society, as a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today. Ruskin was the child of first cousins. His father, John James Ruskin, was a sherry and wine importer founding partner and de facto manager of Ruskin, Telford. John James was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a mother from Glenluce and his wife, Margaret Cox, née Cock, was the daughter of an aunt on the English side of the family and a publican in Croydon. She had joined the Ruskin household when she became companion to John Jamess mother, John James had hoped to practice law, but was instead articled as a clerk in London. His father, John Thomas Ruskin, described as a grocer, was an inadequate businessman, to save the family from bankruptcy, John James, whose prudence and success were in stark contrast to his father, took on all debts, settling the last of them in 1832. John James and Margaret were engaged in 1809, but opposition to the union from John Thomas, Ruskin was born at 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London, south of St Pancras railway station. His childhood was characterised by the influences of his father and mother. John James Ruskin helped to develop his sons Romanticism and they shared a passion for the works of Byron, Shakespeare and especially Walter Scott
John Ruskin
–
John Ruskin in 1863
John Ruskin
–
Ruskin as a young child, painted by
James Northcote.
John Ruskin
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10 Rose Terrace, Perth (on the right), where Ruskin spent boyhood holidays with Scottish relatives
John Ruskin
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Effie Gray painted by
Thomas Richmond. She thought the portrait made her look like "a graceful Doll".
13.
Jersey
–
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is a Crown dependency of the United Kingdom, ruled by the Crown in right of Jersey, off the coast of Normandy, France. Jersey was part of the Duchy of Normandy, whose dukes went on to become kings of England from 1066. After Normandy was lost by the kings of England in the 13th century, and the ducal title surrendered to France, Jersey, Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems, and the power of self-determination. The Lieutenant Governor on the island is the representative of the Queen. The island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, although the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as the Channel Islands, the Channel Islands are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a relationship to the Crown from the other Crown dependencies of Guernsey. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and has an identity separate from that of the UK. The definition of United Kingdom in the British Nationality Act 1981 is interpreted as including the UK, Jersey is not fully part of the European Union but has a special relationship with it, notably being treated as within the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods. The name Caesarea has been used as the Latin name for Jersey since William Camdens Britannia, the Latin name Caesarea was also applied to the colony of New Jersey as Nova Caesarea. Andium, Agna and Augia were used in antiquity, scholars variously surmise that Jersey and Jèrri derive from jarð or jarl, or perhaps a personal name, Geirr. The ending -ey denotes an island, Jersey history is influenced by its strategic location between the northern coast of France and the southern coast of England, the islands recorded history extends over a thousand years. La Cotte de St Brelade is a Palaeolithic site inhabited before rising sea levels transformed Jersey into an island, Jersey was a centre of Neolithic activity, as demonstrated by the concentration of dolmens. Evidence of Bronze Age and early Iron Age settlements can be found in locations around the island. In June 2012 it was announced what could be Europes largest hoard of Iron Age coins had been found in Grouville by two persons using metal detectors, the hoard may be worth up to £10 M. People had been searching for treasure for 30 years. It was reported that the hoard weighed about three quarters of a tonne and could contain up to 50,000 Roman and Celtic coins, in 2012 the same two men had found 60 Iron Age coins in the same area. Jersey was part of Neustria with the same Gallo-Frankish population as the continental mainland, Jersey was invaded by Vikings in the 9th century. In 933 it was annexed to the future Duchy of Normandy, together with the other Channel Islands, Cotentin and Avranchin, by William Longsword, count of Rouen and it became one of the Norman Islands
Jersey
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Arriving at St Helier Harbour in Jersey
Jersey
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Flag
Jersey
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An 1893 painting of the Assize d'Heritage by
John St Helier Lander.
Jersey
–
Liberation Day celebrations in Jersey, 9 May 2012
14.
Thackeray
–
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He is known for his works, particularly Vanity Fair. Thackeray, a child, was born in Calcutta, British India. His mother, Anne Becher, was the daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher. Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England in 1816, the ship on which he travelled made a short stopover at St. Helena, where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. Once in England he was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick, and then at Charterhouse School, Thackeray disliked Charterhouse, and parodied it in his fiction as Slaughterhouse. Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with a monument after his death, Thackeray then travelled for some time on the continent, visiting Paris and Weimar, where he met Goethe. He returned to England and began to study law at the Middle Temple and he also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. The Thackerays had three children, all girls, Anne Isabella, Jane and Harriet Marian, who married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor, Thackeray now began writing for his life, as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. Between 1837 and 1840 he also reviewed books for The Times and he was also a regular contributor to The Morning Chronicle and The Foreign Quarterly Review. Later, through his connection to the illustrator John Leech, he began writing for the newly created magazine Punch, in which he published The Snob Papers and this work popularised the modern meaning of the word snob. Thackeray was a regular contributor to Punch between 1843 and 1854. Tragedy struck in Thackerays personal life as his wife, Isabella, succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child, in 1840. Finding that he could get no work done at home, he spent more and more time away until September 1840, struck by guilt, he set out with his wife to Ireland. During the crossing she threw herself from a water-closet into the sea and they fled back home after a four-week battle with her mother. From November 1840 to February 1842 Isabella was in and out of professional care and she eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality. Isabella outlived her husband by 30 years, in the end being cared for by a family named Thompson in Leigh-on-Sea at Southend until her death in 1894, after his wifes illness Thackeray became a de facto widower, never establishing another permanent relationship. He did pursue other women, however, in particular Mrs Jane Brookfield, in 1851 Mr Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits to or correspondence with Jane. Baxter, an American twenty years Thackerays junior whom he met during a tour in New York City in 1852
Thackeray
–
1855
daguerreotype of William Makepeace Thackeray
Thackeray
–
Thackeray portrayed by
Eyre Crowe, 1845
Thackeray
–
Caricature of Thackeray by Thackeray
Thackeray
–
Thackeray's grave at
Kensal Green Cemetery, London, photographed in 2014
15.
Dinan
–
Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-dArmor department in northwestern France. Instead of nestling on the floor like Morlaix, most urban development has been on the hillside. The area alongside the River Rance is known as the port of Dinan and is connected to the town by the steep streets Rue Jerzual, in the centre of Dinan the Rance summer flows are typically in the range of 500 cubic feet per second. Inhabitants of Dinan are called dinannais and dinannaises, the medieval town on the hilltop has many fine old buildings, some of which date from the 13th century. The town retains a large section of the city walls, part of which can be walked round, major historical attractions include the Jacobins Theatre dating from 1224, the flamboyant Gothic St Malos Church, the Romanesque St Saviours Basilica, Duchess Annes Tower and the Château de Dinan. A major highlight in the calendar is Dinans Fête des Remparts, the town is transformed with decoration and many locals dress up in medieval garb for this two-day festival. The festival takes place over the weekend in July every even-numbered year. In 2008,4. 97% of primary children attended bilingual schools. His heart is buried in Dinan, the hospital in Dinan is named after him. Horace Tuck, English painter, visited Dinan for its picturesque vistas Roger Vercel, writer, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1934, a college in the town is named after him
Dinan
–
Château de Dinan
Dinan
–
On the banks of the Rance River
Dinan
–
Basilica of St Saviour
Dinan
–
HIC MILITES WILLELMI DUCIS PUGNANT CONTRA DINANTES ("Here the knights of Duke William fight against the men of Dinan"). Scene from the
Bayeux Tapestry, c.1066, showing the early castle of Dinan
16.
Royal Academy schools
–
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
Royal Academy schools
–
Royal Academy of Arts
Royal Academy schools
–
Satiric drawing of Sir William Chambers, one of the founders, trying to slay the 8-headed hydra of the Incorporated Society of Artists
Royal Academy schools
–
Study for
Henry Singleton 's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.
Royal Academy schools
–
An early
RA Summer Exhibition at the Academy's original home in
Somerset House
17.
William Holman Hunt
–
William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their attention to detail, vivid color. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, for Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career and he was always keen to maximize the popular appeal and public visibility of his works. After eventually entering the Royal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected and he formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Along with John Everett Millais they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the qualities of medieval art. He had many pupils including Robert Braithwaite Martineau, after a failed engagement to his model Annie Miller, he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure of Isabella. When she died in childbirth in Italy, he sculpted her tomb at Fiesole, having it brought down to the English Cemetery in Florence and he had a close connection with St. Marks Church in Florence, and paid for the communion chalice inscribed in memory of his wife and his second wife, Edith, was Fannys sister. At the time it was illegal in Great Britain to marry ones deceased wifes sister, hunts works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness. He achieved some note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such as The Hireling Shepherd. Hunt also painted works based on poems, such as Isabella. He eventually built his own house in Jerusalem and he eventually had to relinquish painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not achieve the quality that he wanted. His last major works, including a version of The Light of the World, were completed with the help of his assistant. Hunt died on 7 September 1910 and was buried in St Pauls Cathedral in London, Hunt published an autobiography in 1905. Many of his writings are attempts to control the interpretation of his work. That year, he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII, at the end of his life he lived in Sonning-on-Thames
William Holman Hunt
–
Self-portrait, 1867,
Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence
William Holman Hunt
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William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt
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Our English Coasts, 1852 ('Strayed Sheep')
William Holman Hunt
–
Hunt in his eastern dress, photo by
Julia Margaret Cameron
18.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt, Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a precursor of the Aesthetic movement. Rossettis art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism and his early poetry was influenced by John Keats. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence, poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossettis work. Rossettis personal life was linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth. The son of émigré Italian scholar Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and his wife Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, Rossetti was born in London, England and his family and friends called him Gabriel, but in publications he put the name Dante first in honour of Dante Alighieri. He was the brother of poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti and his father was a Roman Catholic, at least prior to his marriage, and his mother was an Anglican, ostensibly Gabriel was baptized as and was a practicing Anglican. During his childhood, Rossetti was home educated and often read the Bible, along with the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, the youthful Rossetti is described as self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic but also ardent, poetic and feckless. Like all his siblings, he aspired to be a poet and attended Kings College School and he also wished to be a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art. He studied at Henry Sass Drawing Academy from 1841 to 1845, when he enrolled in the Antique School of the Royal Academy, after leaving the Royal Academy, Rossetti studied under Ford Madox Brown, with whom he retained a close relationship throughout his life. Following the exhibition of William Holman Hunts painting The Eve of St. Agnes, the painting illustrated a poem by the little-known John Keats. Rossettis own poem, The Blessed Damozel, was an imitation of Keats, together they developed the philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which they founded along with John Everett Millais. Their approach was to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, the eminent critic John Ruskin wrote, Every Pre-Raphaelite landscape background is painted to the last touch, in the open air, from the thing itself. Every Pre-Raphaelite figure, however studied in expression, is a portrait of some living person. Rossettis first major paintings in oil display the realist qualities of the early Pre-Raphaelite movement and his Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini portray Mary as a teenage girl. I saw at once that he was not an orthodox boy, the mixture of genius and dilettantism of both men shut me up for the moment, and whetted my curiosity. Although his work subsequently won support from John Ruskin, Rossetti only rarely exhibited thereafter, in 1850, Rossetti met Elizabeth Siddal, an important model for the Pre-Raphaelite painters
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti c. 1871, by
George Frederic Watts
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Self-portrait, 1847
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at 22 years of Age by
William Holman Hunt
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849). (Models: the artist's mother for
St. Anne and his sister Christina for
the Virgin).
19.
Gower Street (London)
–
Gower Street is a street in Bloomsbury, central London, running from Montague Place in the south to Euston Road at the north. The street continues as North Gower Street north of the Euston Road, to the south it becomes Bloomsbury Street. University College London and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art are located along Gower Street as is part of University College Hospital, UCL maintains two student residences along the street, the Arthur Tattersall and John Tovell Houses. Of the many UCL buildings along Gower Street, the Cruciform Building is especially notable, Old boys of University College School are known as Old Gowers after the street where it founded and co-located with UCL. Euston Square tube station is located at the end of Gower Street. Gower Street is named after Lady Gertrude Leveson-Gower, daughter of John Leveson-Gower, notable residents of Gower Street have included the architect George Dance the Younger, painter William de Morgan, and the Shaws. John Shaw, Sr. and John Shaw, Jr. formed a famous nineteenth-century architectural partnership, thomas Budd Shaw was a professor of English literature to the grand dukes of Russia. He moved in on 31 December, and with Emma moved in on the day of their marriage,29 January 1839, the development of Darwins theory of natural selection made progress in this house, and their children William Erasmus Darwin and Anne Darwin were born there. In 1842 the family moved to Down House in the countryside, on 13 December 1904 a London County Council blue plaque was put up, to Charles Darwin Naturalist. The house suffered from damage in 1941 during the Blitz. In 1961 the site became part of the Biological Sciences building of University College London, the long thin garden which backed on to Gower Mews North was incorporated into Foster Court car park in 1978. The etymologist and philologist Hensleigh Wedgwood, who was Charles Darwins cousin and brother-in-law, lived at 94 Gower Street and it was erected by The Trevithick Centenary Memorial Committee. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in the Millais family house on Gower Street in the winter of 1848–49, millicent Fawcett, a leading figure in the constitutional wing of the British womens suffrage movement, lived at No.2 Gower Street. The Walloon poet Henri Michaux briefly resided in Gower Street in February 1931, from 1976 until 1995 the headquarters of MI5 were an anonymous grey office block at 140 Gower Street, adjacent to the Euston Road. The site has since been redeveloped, many of the Georgian houses on Gower Street have been converted into small hotels. North Gower Street, the continuation of Gower Street beyond Euston Road, is not accessible from Gower Street at street level for vehicles or pedestrians. For pedestrians, the most direct access is via a subway along the concourse of Euston Square station, from Euston Road, North Gower Street continues past Drummond Street and then ends, with a footpath continuing north to connect with the Hampstead Road. It is lined mostly with Georgian terraced houses now converted into hotels and student accommodation or rebuilt
Gower Street (London)
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Gower Street
Gower Street (London)
Gower Street (London)
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UCL entrance
Gower Street (London)
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Charles Darwin Plaque
20.
Bedford Square
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Bedford Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England. The square takes its name from the title of the Russell family, the Dukes of Bedford. Bedford Square is one of the best preserved set pieces of Georgian architecture in London, numbers 1-10,11, 12–27, 28–38 and 40–54 are grade I listed buildings. Bedford College, the first place for higher education in Britain, was formerly located in Bedford Square. Nos.1 and 2, Cameron Mackintosh Limited No,3, Winston House Nos.4,5 and 6, New York Universitys London campus No. 7, London School of Business and Management Nos.8 &9, London School of Hygiene,11, Royal Holloway, University of London No. 12, ACCENT International Consortium for Academic Programs Abroad, London Study Center No,16, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art No. 18, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, London No.19 New College of the Humanities No.21 FSPG Chartered Accountants No.26 SIS Digital the home of Digital out of Home No,29, London office of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus No. 30, Sothebys Institute of Art No,32,33,34,35,36,37,38 and 39, Architectural Association School of Architecture No. 47, Yale University Press, London Nos.49,50 and 51,6, Lord Eldon — Lord Chancellor No. 10, Charles Gilpin — MP No,11, John Scarlett Davis - artist, died there in 1845 Henry Cavendish — scientist No. 13, Harry Ricardo — engine designer — born here No,22, Johnston Forbes-Robertson — actor No. 26, National Council for Voluntary Organisations,1928 –1992 No,30, Jonathan Cape — publishing company No. 35, Thomas Hodgkin — physician, reformer and philanthropist No,35, Thomas Wakley — founder of The Lancet No. 41, William Butterfield — architect No,41, Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins — novelist No. 44, Margot Asquith — wife of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, before that,48, Elizabeth Jesser Reid — anti-slavery activist and founder of Bedford College for Women No. 49, Francis Walker — entomologist, before that Ram Mohan Roy — Indian scholar and reformer No
Bedford Square
–
The north side of Bedford Square, viewed from near the north-east corner
Bedford Square
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Bedford Square from the
BT Tower in 1966
Bedford Square
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Bedford Square (2005)
Bedford Square
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The London office of the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is in Bedford Square.
21.
Mariana (Millais)
–
Mariana is an 1851 oil-on-wood painting by John Everett Millais. The image is based on the solitary Mariana from William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, in the play, Mariana was to be married, but was rejected when her dowry was lost in a shipwreck. The painting is regarded as an example of Millais precision, attention to detail, raphael was one of the Renaissance painters that the Brotherhood admired, which is where the name of their group came from. The PRB wanted to create paintings that provided a moral lesson in the tradition of Raphael’s Renaissance paintings. However, that not mean that the PRB only painted religious images. Oftentimes the PRB artists used images to create a narrative. Sometimes they even used contemporary literature as inspiration for their paintings, many of their paintings include a large amount of details, which allow the viewer to “read” the painting. Since the PRB artists wanted viewers to read their paintings, they included so many details that the paintings became a narrative, Millais used Tennyson’s poetry to create a narrative for their paintings and he wanted to allow the viewer to read the entire poem through their painting. Although the artist can only show one scene from the poem, the Millais included details, the viewers at the time would have been familiar with Tennyson’s poetry. Thus, they would be able to read the paintings very easily, John Millais was also a founding member of the PRB. He was born into a wealthy family and from a very young age his artistic talent was recognized. Millais was two years younger than Hunt but that did not dampen their friendship at all, at the age of 11, he was admitted into the Academy and exhibited several works there over a period of years. Millais married Effie Chalmers in 1855, Millais is known for Christ in the House of His Parents, and one of the paintings that Millais is most famous for is Bubbles. Later in his career, Millais made a name for himself as a painter of portrait, Millais’ Mariana also used Tennyson’s poetry as a starting point for his painting. This painting is packed with details that help the viewer to read the narrative of the work along with Tennyson’s poetry and it is all about waiting and the passage of time, which Millais shows by the arched-back pose of the woman. The pose makes it seem like she has been sitting too long, the rolled up embroidery on the table also gives the viewer a clue as to how long Mariana has been working on it while waiting for her lover to arrive. In the painting Mariana, Millais included many details that relate directly to Tennyson’s poetry, in the poem, Tennyson wrote, “When thickest dark did trance the sky, She drew her casement-curtain by, and glanced athwart the glooming flats”. Although there is not a curtain in Millais’ painting, this line is similar to the scene that is presented outside of the window, the viewer perceives an ominous feeling, just like the dark storm that Tennyson alludes to in the line above
Mariana (Millais)
–
Mariana
Mariana (Millais)
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Mariana may have been painted as a companion piece to Claudio and Isabella (1850) by
William Holman Hunt
22.
Holy Family
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The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, the Gospels speak little of the life of the Holy Family in the years before Jesus’ public ministry. Matthew and Luke narrate the episodes from this period of Christs life, namely his Circumcision and later Presentation, the Flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the Finding in the Temple. Joseph and Mary were apparently observant Jews, as Luke narrates that they brought Jesus with them on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem with other Jewish families. The Feast of the Holy Family is a celebration in the Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families and it is a holy day of obligation only if it falls on a Sunday. The feast was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1893 and set on the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany, the 1962 Roman Missal, whose use is still authorized, follows the General Roman Calendar of 1960, which has the celebration on that date. The Holy Family is a theme in Christian art. An oil painting by the Dutch Joos van Cleve, dated to about 1512, is on display at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, michelangelos tempera rendition hangs in the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. A Holy Family by Giulio Romano is on view at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the members of the Holy Family are the patrons of the Congregation of Holy Cross. The Holy Cross Sisters are dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Holy Cross Brothers to St. Joseph, the Sons of the Holy Family is another religious congregation devoted to the Holy Family. The Cathedral of the Holy Family of Nazareth is the see of the Diocese of Tulsa in Oklahoma. A pious practice among Catholics is to write J. M. J. at the top of letters and personal notes as a reference to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as the Holy Family. Brothers of Jesus Chronology of Jesus Finding in the Temple Flight into Egypt Holy Kinship Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth Remarks of Benedict XVI on the Feast of the Holy Family Pope Francis. Homily on the Feast of the Holy Family, Vatican Radio, December 27,2015
Holy Family
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Holy Family by Juan Simon Gutierrez
Holy Family
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The Holy Family - Rafael
Holy Family
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A series of articles on
23.
A Huguenot
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A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomews Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge is a painting by John Everett Millais. The long title is abbreviated to A Huguenot or A Huguenot on St Bartholomews Day. It depicts a pair of lovers in an embrace. The familiar subject is given a dramatic twist because the embrace is in fact an attempt by the girl to get her beloved to wear a white armband, the young man gently pulls the armband off with the same hand with which he embraces the girl. The incident refers to the St. Bartholomews Day massacre in 1572 when French Protestants were massacred in Paris, a small number of Protestants escaped from the city by wearing white armbands. Millais had initially planned simply to depict lovers, but had been persuaded by his Pre-Raphaelite colleague William Holman Hunt that the subject was too trite. After seeing Giacomo Meyerbeers opera Les Huguenots, which tells the story of the massacre, in the opera the character Valentine also attempts unsuccessfully to get her lover Raoul to wear the armband. The choice of a pro-Protestant subject was also significant because the Pre-Raphaelites had previously been attacked for their sympathies to the Oxford Movement. Some of the flowers depicted in the scene may have been chosen because of the contemporary interest in the language of flowers. The blue Canterbury Bells at the left, for example, can stand for faith, the painting was exhibited with Ophelia in 1852, and helped to change attitudes towards the Pre-Raphaelites. Tom Taylor wrote a positive review in Punch. The painting was reproduced as an engraving, which became Millaiss first major popular success, as a result Millais went on to produce a number of other paintings on similar subjects
A Huguenot
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A Huguenot on St. Bartholomew's Day
24.
Measure for Measure
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Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. Originally published in the First Folio of 1623, where it was listed as a comedy, the plays main themes include justice, mortality and mercy in Vienna, and the dichotomy between corruption and purity, some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Mercy and virtue predominate, since the play does not end tragically, additionally, traces of Christian virtues such as compassion and forgiveness can be identified in the ending of the production. While the play focuses on justice overall, the scene illustrates that Shakespeare intended for Christian justice to be restored more so than true civil justice. This is highlighted through a number of the characters receiving understanding and leniency, instead of the punishment they, according to the law. Measure for Measure is often called one of Shakespeares problem plays and it was, and continues to be, classified as comedy, though its tone may defy those expectations. Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, makes it known that he intends to leave the city on a diplomatic mission and he leaves the government in the hands of a strict judge, Angelo. In the next scene, we find a group of soldiers on a Vienna street, expressing their hopes, in irreverent banter, that a war with Hungary is afoot, and that they will be able to take part. Mistress Overdone, the operator of a whorehouse frequented by these soldiers, appears. She tells them that it is Signor Claudio, and that within three days his head to be chopped off as punishment for getting Madam Julietta with child. Lucio, one of the soldiers who is revealed to be Claudios friend, is astonished at this news. He then informs Mistress Overdone of Angelos new proclamation, that All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down, the brothels in the city shall stand for seed, they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. Mistress Overdone is distraught, as her business is in the suburbs, Pompey replies with a characteristic mixture of bawdy humor and folk-wisdom, fear you not, good counselors lack no clients, though you change your place, you need not change your trade. There will be pity taken on you, you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, Claudio is then led past Pompey and Overdone on his way to prison, and we learn what has happened to him. Claudio married Juliet, but, as they have not completed all the technicalities, Angelo, as the interim ruler of the city, decides to enforce a law that fornication is punishable by death, so Claudio is sentenced to be executed. Claudios friend, Lucio, visits Claudios sister, Isabella, a novice nun, Isabella obtains an audience with Angelo, and pleads for mercy for Claudio. Isabella refuses, but when she threatens to expose his lechery, he tells her that no one will believe her. Instead, she visits her brother in prison and counsels him to himself for death
Measure for Measure
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The first page of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, printed in the
First Folio of 1623
Measure for Measure
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Claudio and Isabella (1850) by
William Holman Hunt
Measure for Measure
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Pompey Bum, as he was portrayed by nineteenth-century actor
John Liston
Measure for Measure
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Mariana (1888) by
Valentine Cameron Prinsep
25.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
William Shakespeare
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The
Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed.
National Portrait Gallery, London.
William Shakespeare
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John Shakespeare's house, believed to be
Shakespeare's birthplace, in
Stratford-upon-Avon.
William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare's coat of arms, as it appears on the rough draft of the application to grant a coat-of-arms to John Shakespeare. It features a spear as a
pun on the family name.
William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.
26.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success and he is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England and he was born into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had a noble and royal ancestry. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was rector of Somersby, also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a family and was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music. He was comfortably well off for a clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe. Alfred Tennysons mother, Elizabeth Fytche, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth and rector of Withcall, Tennysons father carefully attended to the education and training of his children. Tennyson and two of his brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner, later married Louisa Sellwood, the sister of Alfreds future wife. Another of Tennysons brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum, Tennyson was a student of Louth Grammar School for four years and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined a society called the Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by George Frederic Watts is in Trinitys collection, at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of his rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, reportedly, it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellors gold medal. He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830, claribel and Mariana, which later took their place among Tennysons most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day. In the spring of 1831, Tennysons father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree and he returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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1869
Carbon print by
Julia Margaret Cameron
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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An illustration by
W. E. F. Britten showing Somersby Rectory, where Tennyson was raised and began writing.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Tennyson with his wife Emily (1813–1896) and his sons Hallam (1852–1928) and Lionel (1854–1886).
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Lord Tennyson.
27.
The Order of Release
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The Order of Release,1746 is a painting by John Everett Millais exhibited in 1853. It is notable for marking the beginnings of Millaiss move away from the highly detailed Pre-Raphaelitism of his early years, Effie Gray, who later left her husband for the artist, modelled for the principal figure. The painting depicts the wife of a rebel Scottish soldier, who has been imprisoned after the Jacobite rising of 1745 and she holds her child, showing the order to a guard, while her husband embraces her. The subject is simply that of a wife, with child in her arms, coming with an order of release for her husband, the colouring, the textural execution, are marvellous. The dark, generalised background is a departure from the detailed backgrounds of earlier works such as Ophelia. However, the portrayal of tense relationships disrupted by historical dramas was a continuation of the theme of A Huguenot, while working on the painting, Millais fell in love with Effie, the wife of his principal supporter, the critic John Ruskin. A study for the painting has a drawing of her head on one side, the title of the painting was adopted for the book The Order of Release by William Milbourne James about the love triangle, and also of a radio play about it broadcast in 1998. The painting of the picture is dramatised onstage in the play Mrs Ruskin by Kim Morrissey, the Order of Release at The Victorian Web
The Order of Release
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The Order of Release, 1746
28.
The Return of the Dove to the Ark
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The Return of the Dove to the Ark is a painting by Sir John Everett Millais, completed in 1851. It is now displayed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the painting portrays a scene from the Bible. Two of Noahs daughters-in-law nurture the dove that has returned to the Ark bearing an olive branch, the Return of the Dove to the Ark was first put on public display at the Royal Academy in 1851. It was praised by John Ruskin and Théophile Gautier, among others and it passed to the Ashmolean as part of the Combe Bequest in 1893
The Return of the Dove to the Ark
–
The Return of the Dove to the Ark. Oil on canvas. 88.2 × 54.9 cm
29.
John Guille Millais
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John Guille Johnny Millais was a British artist, naturalist, gardener and travel writer who specialised in wildlife and flower portraiture. He travelled extensively around the world in the late Victorian period detailing wildlife often for the first time and he is noted for illustrations that are of a particularly exact nature. John Guille Millais was the son and seventh child of Sir John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite painter. John was raised in London and Perthshire with a wide interest in natural history, as a boy he made a collection of birds shot around the Perthshire coast of Scotland where he spent much of his childhood. This formed the basis of a collection of around 3,000 specimens that he later housed in a private museum in Horsham in West Sussex. Specimens from this collection were depicted by his father in his painting The Ruling Passion, John Guille himself painted a bird in his fathers painting Dew-Drenched Furze. Millais began his career in the army with the Seaforth Highlanders and his was clearly a wanderlust based on a desire to see, record and paint the natural world. To this end he travelled widely in Europe, Africa and North America, in the New World in the 1880s/90s he explored Canada and Newfoundland and helped map uncharted areas of Alaska. In 1903 Millais co-founded the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire, Millais was passionate about hunting and fellow members included the famous hunters Frederick Selous and explorer and hunter Frank Wallace. The club still survives and includes the Duke of Edinburgh amongst its members, after World War I broke out in 1914, Millais was taken into the secret service of the Royal Navy in Norway and in Iceland. In August 1915 he met with two German spies at Christiania, and travelled with them to Lofoten and he was engaged in setting up and supporting a network of counter espionage. The importance of Norway to the war effort was that the seas provided a route for food. Millais reported from Norway that whilst the Norwegian authorities were generally pro British, in December 1917 he was nearly captured by the Germans but with the help of a harbour master he managed to get out of Norway, returning to Newcastle. After the War, Millais wrote and published a book on his life and hunting exploits in Africa, Wanderings and Memories chronicled his passion for big game hunting and his fondness for the Scotland of his childhood. It contains a chapter from Millais close friend, African game hunter Arthur Henry Neumann and this book went to several reprints including an American edition renamed A Sportsmans Wanderings. Millais is one of the most respected of British ornithologists and bird artists and they rank amongst the finest work on wildfowl ever published. Each bird receives individual treatment in text and detailed chromolithographs, some of which are by his friend, each species is represented by two or three individuals on a plate drawn in attitudes of feeding, resting and courtship. The books are lavish and with just 400 to 600 original editions published are now prized as examples of a type of High Victorian grandeur
John Guille Millais
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Johnny Millais c 1900
John Guille Millais
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Arthur Neumann (1897)
John Guille Millais
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Mallard from British Surface Feeding Ducks by J G Millais
John Guille Millais
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Teal from British Surface Feeding Ducks by J G Millais
30.
Sophy Gray (Pre-Raphaelite muse)
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Sophia Margaret Sophy Gray, later Sophy Caird, was a Scottish-born model for her brother-in-law, the pre-Raphaelite painter, John Everett Millais. She was the sister of Euphemia Gray, who married Millais in 1855 after the annulment of her marriage to John Ruskin. From the late 1860s she suffered from an illness which seems to have involved a form of anorexia nervosa. In 1873 she married the Scottish entrepreneur James Caird and she died in 1882, probably as a result of her anorexia. Sophy Gray was born in October 1843 and her parents were George Gray, a Scottish lawyer and businessman, and Sophia Margaret Gray, née Jameson. Her grandfather, Andrew Jameson, became Sheriff-substitute of Fife, Sophy was the tenth of fifteen children, although five, including three daughters, pre-deceased her. Two of her three elder brothers alive in 1843 died before she was seven, Effie, known initially to the family as Phemy, was the eldest child. The Grays second daughter, also named Sophia Margaret, died aged six in 1841, the family lived at Bowerswell, a house near the foot of Kinnoull Hill, above the Scottish city of Perth, that was re-built in 1842. As a child Sophy frequently visited or stayed with Effie, who lived in London after her marriage in 1848 to the critic, on 25 April 1854 Effie left her husband on the pretence of visiting her parents in Scotland. Sophy had been staying with the Ruskins, at their home in Herne Hill, since just after Christmas 1853 and she and Effie were seen off in silence by Ruskin at the recently opened Kings Cross station, where, accompanied by Crawley, they boarded a train for Edinburgh. However, Sophy alighted at Hitchin, Hertfordshire where her parents were waiting, mrs Gray took her place on the train, while she and her father returned to London to deliver a package from Effie to her solicitors. That evening a citation of nullity was delivered to Ruskin, together with certain effects such as Effies wedding ring, the following day Sophy and her father returned to Scotland by steamer. Effie was granted a decree of nullity on 20 July 1854, in early 1854, Millais painted a portrait of Sophy for her parents. Through her regular visits to his studio in Gower Street, London, during this period, Ruskins mother appears to have indulged Sophy, while, at the same time, casting aspersions on Effie, who was under very considerable stress. For his part, Ruskin sometimes accompanied Sophy on walks, in the course of which he too spoke slightingly of his wife, Effies surviving letters to her parents suggest that Sophy kept her well informed of such adverse criticism. After the annulment of her marriage, Effie avoided Millais for some time and she and Sophy, whose governess was not replaced, spent much of the summer at St Andrews, on the coast of Fife, with their younger sister, Alice. They went for walks together and Effie, who had been well educated herself, the following year, Effie eventually invited Millais to Bowerswell, where they were married in June 1855. For the next few years Sophy continued to sit for Millais, after he and Effie moved to Annat Lodge, close to Bowerswell, she was readily available for this purpose, but it seems also that she was beginning to displace Effie herself as a favoured subject
Sophy Gray (Pre-Raphaelite muse)
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Portrait of a Girl, Millais' 1857 painting of Sophy Gray
Sophy Gray (Pre-Raphaelite muse)
–
Sophy, centre, in
Autumn Leaves. Alice Gray is on the left.
Sophy Gray (Pre-Raphaelite muse)
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Millais' Spring (Apple Blossoms), with Sophy on the far left.
Sophy Gray (Pre-Raphaelite muse)
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Millais' 1880 portrait of Sophy
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"Millais, John Everett". Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1901.
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Millais's Mariana[1]
