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Fig 28 John Everett Millais Master Liddell Liddell son of Charles Liddell Liddell Esq 1871 161 3 3 x x 105 4 4 cm (631⁄2 x x 411⁄2 in ) private collection The boys’ knickerbocker suits are similar to those in a a a slightly later painting of the young Charles Liddell (private collection fig 28)8 of 1871 These are not the historical costumes belonging to another era and associated with other painters whether that be the the the attire of Golden Age Spain or the eighteenth-century fancy dress seen in in Reynolds’s portraits These children are not dressed in the historical costumes of the past but positioned firmly in the present Millais has carefully constructed a a a a a painting which firmly places the children within a a a a a a fashionable and wealthy mid- Victorian household By 1861 the Millais family had moved into a a a a a a a house at 7 Cromwell Place in in the fashionable area
of South Kensington close to to major cultural institutions like the South Kensington Museum The piano was probably one of several Broadwood grand pianos which Millais bought or rented from the well-known English makers during the the period 1861-3 9 It may for example be the the piano Millais Millais bought for £186 in March 1862 J G Millais Millais would note in his biography of the the artist that the the piano was to be a a a a fixture of the Cromwell Place studio 10 It also appears in one one of of his commissioned portraits of of the time that of Henry Lavallin Puxley and his daughter Molly 1862-4 (private collection) It may be that the new piano gave rise to a a a a a a novel game for his children which inspired the present picture We know that Millais began The Wolf’s Den late in 1862 as he he noted: ‘Wolf’s Den/Evie’s head painted /in one hour’ 11 Millais was still working on on it on on 22 March 1863 when the artist George Price Boyce (1826-97) called on his friend recording in in in his diary: ‘He has in in in hand an an excellent picture of his children playing
at Wolf ’12
Other careful additions remind us that this is is a a a a contemporary and not historic painting The younger daughter Mary leans on a a a a a a volume of the illustrator and satirist John Leech’s Pictures of Life and Character from the the Collection of of Mr Punch Punch With the the founding of of Punch Punch magazine in in 1841 Leech gradually established himself
as one of of the foremost artists of of early Victorian pictorial satire He was also Millais’s close personal friend: the two men met in in in 1851 and spent much time shooting or riding together particularly in the the years before Millais’s marriage Millais’s inclusion of this volume is is is both a a a testament to the men’s friendship but also a a a a statement of his belief that illustrative work which Millais himself
was producing in in the the 1850s and 1860s had much to teach the the fine artist despite its inferior professional status On the the bottom right edge of the the painting close to to Mary’s shoulder lies what appears to be a a a a a a a doll but is actually a a a a a a a porcelain Chinese figure of a a a a popular god dressed in in in an adapted Chinese official’s robe 13 With the opening up o of trade between China and Europe these figures flooded onto the the market between the the period 1700 to to 1842 The 30