The San Francisco call., 1896-08-23

erless," pervades many Of his pictures.
Millais himself spoke of it as the "unfin-
ished dream" We find it in the "Hugue-
nots," in the "Tabella," in the "Ophelia, "
in the s'Blind Girp' and in the 'Vale OF
Rest" The latter is singularly i'm
pressive, with its two nuns, one digging a
grave, the other sitting on fallen head
stone, gazing with calmness almost
deathly at the glory of the sunset There
is something about the somber figures OF
the women against all that splendor OF
light which suggests for them no ecstatic
thrill of life. or power, or possible achieve
ment, but merely marks the end OF an
other day out of those that pass in solemn
procession toward the grave, which is in
describably awesome.
Millais gradually dropped away from
his allegiance to the brotherhood, after
his election to the Royal Academy the
youngest mem Der but one ever admitted.
His manner changed entirely. This de-
parture of his is seen in different lights,
according to the point Of view. The
academy regarded it with complacepcy,
but his earlier friends felt that he had
fallen from his high ideals. Neither party
could gainsay the unimpaired skill OF his
brush.
His charming pictures of children date
after this change, and certainly no painter
has given US such chubby and lovable
English youngsters as his. The Little
Miss Muffitt" is irresistible. One longs
to brush away the wicked spider which
has drawn that dear little dimpled face
into such an expression of dismay.
Andrew Lang says of Millais: "If he
had never touched historical nor sacred
art; if he were not supreme IN rortraiture,
all admirable IN landscape; if nineteen
twentieths of his work were swept away
by accident, his studies of the beauty and
sweetness of childhood would still win for
him place beside the painter of 'Pene-
lope Boothby.'" Sir Joshua Reynolds
Penelope Boothby had been held to be the
supreme achievement OF child portraiture.
Every one knows cinderella" and
CHERRY Ripe" Less familiar are "My
First Sermon" where the little maiden is
sitting very straight and awe-stricken at
the sound of the preachers voice, and
MY Second Sermon" where familiarity
has lessened awe to the extent of induc-
ing sleep.
The Northwest Passage" in the Henry
Yate collection, portrays an old sea cap
tain poring over a chart while. his
daughter sits at his knee reading from an
open book. The subject is better under
stood by the subtitle, '.It Might Be Done.
and England Ought to Do tn
Tradition says Millais got 10 shillings
for an early portrait, while in after years
he got $4,000.
Perhaps of all the brotherhood Holman
Hunt received the largest sums of money
for his pictures. His "Shadow of Death
was bought by the corporation of the city
of Manchester for f10, 500-the greatest
sum ever paid up to that time for the
work of living artist. The picture hangs
to-day in the Corporation Gallery, an OBJ
jective point of interest for all sight
seers. 1t is picture of Christ the Ia
borer-the human Christ rather than the
conventionally divine. Thus Millais, in
that wonderful early picture OF his,
Christ in the Home of His Parents"
shows boy laborer, his hand torn by a
nail, in wooden shed strewn with shaw
ings. Yet, in spite of commonplace sur
roundings, the figure is deeply suggestive
of the problem of human suffering and
the sublime conception of the Christian
ideal.
Millais was knighted in 1885. and on
Thursday, August 13, 1885, died in the
full vigor of splendid maturity.
GRACE S. MUssER.