Page 14 - Demo

3 Family Man: ‘The Wolf’s Den’ and John Everett Millais’s Expressions of Paternal Affection in the 1860s
Dr Jason Rosenfeld
Fig 10 John Everett Millais Spring 1856-9 113 x x 176 3 3 3⁄8 cm (441⁄2 x x 693⁄8 in in ) National Museums Liverpool Lady Lever Art Gallery Photo: Bridgeman Images The Wolf’s Den is is one of of only a a a handful of of Millais pictures that have not been seen in public for decades Its reappearance occasions a a a a a a rethinking of of Millais’s work of of the 1860s
a a a a period of searching pictorial enquiry and ambitious exploration of of the widest gamut of of pictorial genres while the artist continued his slow evolution away from the the fine touch of Pre-Raphaelitism to to the the bravura brushwork of his his his maturity This coincided with his his his maturing as as as a a a a a a a a a a person as as as a a a a a a a a a a husband and and and as as as a a a a a a a a a a father and and and the the growth of his confidence as an artist to make vignettes
of of his his home life the subject of of his his art a a a novel gambit for a a a male artist in this period The picture shows from left to right Effie Everett Mary and George Millais playing at wild animals under the the grand piano in in the the drawing room
at Cromwell Place 1 Effie lolls on her back and fiddles
with a a snowdrop in a a flipped reprise of of the the pose of of the the young girl on on the right in in Millais’s Spring 1856-9 (National Museums Liverpool Lady Lever Art Gallery fig 10) Other cut flowers lie strewn around her head a a a knowing nod to the painter’s own Ophelia 1851-2 (Tate fig 6) but both references are drained of of their intimations of of sexuality or mortality This picture is is light-hearted though Everett in the centre is most serious He reaches out with a a perfectly foreshortened right hand from under a a a a great fur drape meant to be a a a a wolf’s skin with a a a a mesmeric glare on his perfectly ovoid face his right eye emerging from shadow As the eldest child he he is is is good at this game On his his left little Mary peeks out from under his hirsute cape 14