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MY FIRST SERMON
By SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

MY FIRST SERMON
By Sir JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, Bart., P.R.A. (1829-1896)
IN THE GUILDHALL ART GALLERY, LONDON

Millais was born in Southampton, whither his family had come from Jersey. His earliest years were spent at Dinant, in Brittany, but at the age of nine he proceeded to London to embark upon his artistic career. From his earliest days his record was one of brilliant success, and though he encountered the adverse criticism which is the lot of all artists whose work shows strong individuality, his popularity with the multitude kept pace with the reputation he was building up with the learned.

That he was a painstaking workman is to be seen in his pictures, which reveal the accuracy of the Pre-Raphaelite creed, though in later years he grew to value detail more in its relation to the whole of which it formed part than for its own sake. He was too thoughtful an artist to be bound by the chains even of a new tradition, and though he was caught heart and soul by the Pre-Raphaelite doctrine and was a prominent member of that Brotherhood, formed to preach the tidings of veracious renderings of natural things by the painter, he assimilated the principles and practised them only to turn them to his own purposes as his artistic work grew to maturity.

Millais united a great understanding of his art with a wide knowledge of humanity, and these, in combination with his imaginative power, enabled him to produce those paintings which found favour with all ranks of men. Since Reynolds and Gainsborough, nobody painted youth so well, However he depicted children, Millais was always able to impart that air of beauty, dreaminess and truth which calls for insight allied to a master's brush. It is one thing to paint mature beauty and character and another to depict the glamour of immaturity; but Millais could accomplish both with equal power, as his work bears witness.

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
(Firefox users must click again on the large photo to see the very large image.)

Online "Name the Painting"

Works of Millais in the Tate Gallery
(7 pages)

John Everett Millais
links at ArtCyclopedia

Sir John Everett Millais
at Olga's Gallery

Sir John Everett Millais
at The Victorian Web

Sir John Everett Millais
biography at Olga's Gallery

Famous Paintings in this Series

James Archer My Great Grandmother	Bashkirtseff The Meeting	Bouguereau Charity	John Brett From the Dorsetshire Cliffs
Arnesby Brown The River Bank	Joseph Clark Mother's Darling	John Constable The Hay-Wain	Jean Baptiste Camille Corot The Fisherman's Hut
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot A Flood	Leonardo Da Vinci Monna Lisa	Edouard Detaille The Dream	Henri Fantin-Latour Flowers
Thomas Gainsborough Queen Charlotte	Thomas Gainsborough The Market Cart	Jean Baptiste Greuze The Head of a Girl	Jean Baptiste Greuze Fidelity
James Clark Hook Home With the Tide	Alfred William Hunt Windsor Castle	Josef Israels The Shipwrecked Mariner	B.W. Leader The Stream in Summer-time
Madame Vigee Le Brun Portrait of the Artist	Alphonse Legros A Canal With a Fisherman	Anton Mauve Watering Horses	J.L.E. Meissonier The Cavalier
Sir J.E. Millais Speak! Speak!	Sir J.E. Mallais My First Sermon	George Morland The Reckoning	George Morland The Inside of a Stable
Murillo The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin	Alfred Parsons When Nature Painted All Things Gay	Ralph Peacock The Sisters	Rembrandt Syndics of the Cloth Merchants' Guild
Guido Reni "Ecce Homo"	Sir Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare With Her Infant Son	Briton Riviere The Temptation in the Wilderness	Dante Gabriel Rossetti Day Dreams
John Singer Sargent Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth	Lady Stanley (Dorothy Tennant) His First Offence	Jan Steen Grace Before Meat	Marcus Stone On the Road from Waterloo to Paris
Constant Troyon Watering Cattle	H.S. Tuke "All Hands to the Pumps"	Velazquez King Philip IV. of Spain	S.E. Waller Sweethearts and Wives
Thomas Webster The Smile	Index Famous Paintings Volume 1 Art Gallery	Index Famous Paintings Volume 2 Art Gallery	Index Art Appreciation Lessons