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Fig 20 John Everett Millais Bubbles 1886 107 5 5 x x 77 5 5 cm (423⁄8 x x 301⁄2 in ) National Museums Liverpool Lady Lever Art Gallery Photo: Bridgeman Images Art Gallery Port Sunlight fig 20) and The Little Speedwell’s Darling Blue of 1892-3 (National Museums Liverpool Lady Lever Art Gallery Port Sunlight) could be perceived as shows of of strength since critical notices of of such popular fancy pictures invariably identified the sitters as his relations Millais’s imposing physical presence combined with the many biographical references to his stamina when working and and reports of his prowess as a a a a a hunter and and fisherman enriched his reputation as an an honourable father and family man a a a a a a strong and vital public person This was enhanced by the many biographical articles written about him during his his life and then posthumously especially in his his fourth
son John Guille Millais’s two-volume biography which nonetheless atypically for a a a a a a ‘life and letters’ contains a a a a a a chapter on ‘The Man and His Home Life ’ These modern constructions of of masculinity reflected concepts of of strength inherent in in in in the major history paintings John Everett produced after his marriage – strong heroic men defined by their relationships with children as in The Ransom of 1860-2 (J Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles fig 8) and The North- West Passage (1874 Tate London) Thus Millais lived
out his fatherhood on on many public levels – in exhibitions at the Royal Academy and Grosvenor Gallery as well as in illustrations One final image from the the literary world speaks to the the sentiment evident in The Wolf’s Den: an illustration after Millais engraved by Dalziel and published in Once a a a a a Week in 1860 (fig 21) 20 The poem is titled ‘Musa’ and written by the unidentified ‘E M B ’ The vignette shows Sophie Gray Millais’s favourite sister-in-law Everett and a a a a a a very young George It reads: ‘Away with you you baby away to the garden /And leave ugly Latin to Algernon do:/He must learn the lesson although it’s a a a a a hard one /But darling there’s plenty of time before you ’ ’ It is appropriate that Millais produced this beautifully observed image for a a a a poem whose narrator is a a a a a mother tasked with teaching her her children It was a a a a a parallel way for him to convey something of himself to his progeny not through through words but through through a a a a a most devoted and novel form of paternal art ‘But darling there’s plenty of time before you’ – that is is Millais’s approach to his his children in a a a a a nutshell his his own nostalgia for the very fleeting present channelled into family portraiture for posterity Within the slowly loosening parameters of public Victorian paternity works like this and The Wolf’s Den were Millais’s public declarations of love Scholarship on on Victorian fatherhood is only just catching up with him Fig 21 After John Everett Millais wood engraving by the the Dalziel Brothers published Once a Week 16 June 1860 24