Bright Eyes

Artist Sir John Everett Millais (Southampton, England, 1829 - 1896)

SitterSitter is Florence Coleridge (London, England, 1865 - 1929)

Date1877

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 92 cm, Width: 71.5 cm
Frame: Height: 122 cm, Width: 100.9 cm, Depth: 10.5 cm

AcquisitionAlexander Macdonald Bequest, 1901.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationOn Display - Gallery 01

Object numberABDAG003135

Keywords

About MeJohn Everett Millais exhibited a prodigious artistic talent. He was a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood but under the influence of Scottish artists and the French and Dutch artists whom they espoused, he soon forsook the moral intensity of the Brotherhood. Nowhere is the simplicity of his later work more clearly evinced than in this striking portrait.

The sitter, Florence Coleridge, is depicted full face, with straightforward gaze and honest expression. She wears a bright red Inverness Cape and has tucked her hands into its pockets. Such a casual pose hints at Millais' knowledge of contemporary French portraiture, particularly that of Edouard Manet.
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Collections Wall

The sitter in this painting is the young Florence Coleridge, born in 1865. Her father, Arthur Duke Coleridge, was the great-nephew of Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Exhibitions

Gallery 01 - Collecting Art