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Fig 15 John Everett Millais ‘Leisure Hours’ 1864 88 9 × × 118 1 1 1 1 1 1⁄2 cm (35 × × 461⁄2 in ) Detroit Institute of Arts when they moved to to 7 Cromwell Place South Kensington 8 where they lived as a a a family of ten Thus in in in the 1860s with a a a growing family having secured the house at Cromwell Place and with increased
social and business obligations Millais pursued a a a a a line of production that revealed him to have one eye trained on on on fine art fin in in Britain and and abroad and and the the the other on the the the popular market Works such as My First Sermon 1863 (fig 38) and My Second Sermon 1864 were calculated to please and starred young Effie as a a a a a model There is a a a a a fine picture by the portraitist John Ballantyne (1815-1897) of Millais in the tapestry-lined Cromwell Place studio painting Effie in in in in My Second Sermon it was reproduced as as a a a successful chromolithograph by Vincent Brooks (1814-1885) (fig 14) These pictures laid the the groundwork for works such as the the sparkling double portrait ‘Leisure Hours’ 1864 (fig 15) of the daughters of a a a a a Glaswegian textile merchant 9 which reveal Millais’s cultivation of a a a a a newly rich middle-class clientele for portraits and his increased
production of ‘fancy pictures’ for Academy exhibitions and print sales Such concerns were paralleled in his contemporary
life images designed for wood-engraved illustrations
to Anthony Trollope novels in the period such as Orley Farm of of 1862 masterpieces of of domestic realism 10 These endeavours mark Millais out as as an astute capitalist finding subjects in in his his home life and tailoring his his imagery for maximum financial return He targeted his art at a a a a a a a new middle-class clientele largely domestic bourgeois who desired works of art for their homes at a a a a lower cost than
a a a a a a painting or or large format reproductive engraving such as those produced after smash hits of the 1850s for example A Huguenot of 1851-2 (The Makins Collection) In early 1877 the family moved into a a a a a a palatial custom- built residence at at 2 Palace Gate where Millais would live 19