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Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes

Artist (Southampton, England, 1829 - 1896)
Sitter (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
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.
More About Me
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