Currently not on view
Study for The Woodman's Daughter,
1850
Sir John Everett Millais, 1829–1896; born Southampton, England; died London, England
x1942-113
This small graphite sketch is a study for a celebrated painting from 1851 by Millais now in the Guildhall Gallery, London. The composition illustrates lines from The Woodman's Daughter by the Victorian poet Coventry Patmore (1823–96), first published in 1844. Much admired by the Pre-Raphaelites, Patmore’s poem tells the tragic tale of Maud, a poor woodman’s daughter who is happy in her childhood innocence before she is seduced over time by the wealthy squire’s son, who ultimately abandons her with their illegitimate child. In the drawing, as in the finished painting, Millais represents Maud guilelessly receiving strawberries from the squire’s son, rendered with the graphic simplicity of a fairytale.
Information
Title
Study for The Woodman's Daughter
Dates
1850
Maker
Medium
Graphite with touches of pen and brown ink
Dimensions
24.4 x 17.2 cm (9 5/8 x 6 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr.
Object Number
x1942-113
Inscription
in ink, upper right: Jack Millais
Culture
Materials
From “Romantic Art in Britain”, Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition catalogue: dates ca. 1850-1851 (J.G. Millais dates it 1848). (See reference Bib. 4138);
- John Guille Millais, The life and letters of Sir John Everett Millais, president of the Royal Academy, (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1899)., Vol. 1: no. 92 Vol. 2: p. 490.
- "Recent accessions", Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 1, no. 2 (1942): p. 11., p. 11
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti & his circle: a loan exhibition of paintings, drawings & decorative objects by the Pre-Raphaelites & their friends, (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1958)., unpaginated, page nine from cover.
- Frederick J. Cummings and Allen Staley, Romantic art in Britain: paintings and drawings, 1760-1860, (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968)., p. 77, no. 34 (illus.)
- Vilma Kinney, The Victorian rebellion: a loan exhibition of works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their contemporaries, September 12 to October 26, 1971, (Peoria, IL: Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, 1971)., no. 47 (illus.)
