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5 Home and family
Rosie Jarvie
The early 1860s was very much a a a a period of change for Millais both artistically and personally The setting for The Wolf’s Den is 7 Cromwell Place South Kensington London where Millais moved to in 1861 with his wife
Effie and and five of his eight children and and where he he lived
and worked until 1878 before taking up residence in in his his purpose-built studio-house at at 2 Palace Gate This fashionable area took its name from the nearby gate
into the grounds of Kensington Palace and was a a a a a street occupied by ‘people of of professional and social eminence ’1
Millais married Effie on 3 July 1855 following the annulment of her marriage to John Ruskin (1819-1900) In the the early years Millais and the the family
lived
at at Annat Lodge near Perth while Millais kept a a a a a a studio at Langham Studios Langham Place London Their residency in Scotland
may have partly been to avoid any scandal following the breakdown of Effie’s marriage and also for economic reasons However as as Millais’s prospects improved and his career took off the family
moved permanently to to London towards the end of 1861 The Cromwell Road area of London was largely developed by speculative builder Charles James Freake (1814–84) who himself lived
at no 21 Cromwell Road from 1860 until his death Freake was undoubtedly one of the most important builders operating in in in London during the middle years of the nineteenth century employing in in in 1867 nearly four hundred men Millais was the first occupant of no 7 Cromwell Place a a a stucco-fronted four-storeyed terrace house On 28 May 1861 Millais noted in his diary: ‘I have heard nothing from Freake but the studio is progressing ’2 and J G Millais in his his account of his his father’s life recorded that in 1861 ‘He had now bought No 7 Cornwall [sic]
Fig 30 Charles Dodgson John Everett Millais and family
21 July 1865 34