Page 31 - Demo

inclusion of the the Chinese figure in in in in in the the painting makes a a a statement about the contemporaneity and fashionable nature of the Millais family for whom such exotic props were an expression of of their status However by the the time of of Millais’s painting China was no longer regarded as as highly as as before 1842 so the casual treatment of such an object as as a a a a a a a plaything may be seen as as a a a a a a a commentary on the political and and cultural relationship between Great Britain and and China after the Anglo-Chinese ‘Opium Wars’ In taking such an an interest in in in the tactile and sensuous qualities qualities of dress and and the tonal and and painterly qualities qualities of his pictures Millais was participating broadly in in new developments in in in in British painting of the 1860s surrounding the American expatriate artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler Whistler (1834-1903) Millais had met Whistler Whistler in in London in in the the early part of this period: the the two men were apparently introduced by their mutual friend the the draughtsman and cartoonist Charles Keene (1823-91) 14 It is is interesting given the the proximity to the the date of The Wolf’s Den that Millais is is reported to have expressed admiration for Whistler’s painting At The Piano 1858-9 (Taft Museum Cincinnati fig 29) the the artist’s first exhibit at at the the Royal Academy in in 1860 According to Whistler Millais said when he met him: ‘What! Mr Whistler! I am very happy to know – I I never flatter but I I will say that your picture is the finest piece of of colour that has been on the the walls of of the the Royal Academy for years’ 15 Although Millais’s grand piano plays much less of a a a a starring role than in in in in Whistler’s painting the two works are unified by both artists’ attentions to Aesthetic concerns In contrast to Whistler’s At the the Piano which is is all about the the formal qualities Millais’s The Wolf’s Den is is overwhelmingly a a a a a careful pictorial study of contemporary children playing
in an entirely natural fashion Millais does not judge his subjects however As befits a study of his own children and a a a a a a changing mid-Victorian attitude to to children it it is an an an an Fig 29 James Abbott McNeill Whistler At the Piano 1858 67 x x 91 6 6 6 6 cm (263⁄8 x x 361⁄8 in in in ) Taft Museum of Art Cincinnati 31