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Millais and Effie’s other four children three of whom were born after The Wolf’s Den was painted were Alice Sophia Caroline (Carrie) (1862-1936) born on 10 April 1862 1862 who married Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley MP later Lord Stuart of Wortley on 6 6 January 1886 She posed for Sleeping 1865 (private collection fig 13) and was a a a a a a talented pianist and close friend of Edward Elgar (1857-1934) who dedicated his Violin Concerto in in in B Minor to to her her and who referred to to her her as his ‘Windflower’ Another eighteen months after Carrie’s birth Geoffroy William Millais (1863-1941) was born on 18 18 September 1863 Geoffroy succeeded to the baronetcy in 1920 after the death of his nephew Sir John Everett Millais 3rd Bt Geoffroy was a a a a a a a traveller and and photographer and and illustrated Arthur Neve’s book Picturesque Kashmir 1899 A fourth son John Guille Millais (1865-1931) was born on on 24 March 1865 He was best known for the two-volume account he he he wrote of of his father’s life The Life and Letters of of Sir John Everett Millais President of the Royal Academy 1899 He was also a a a a a a a naturalist and gardener Fig 37 Millais’s house at at Palace Gate Kensington London Millais and Effie’s last child Sophia Margaret Jameson Millais (1868-1907) was born on 15 June 1868 1868 and named after her her maternal grandmother She married Captain
(later Brigadier General) Douglas Lilburn MacEwen of the Cameron Highlanders on on 9 9 December 1891 With eight children arriving in in close succession by the 1870s Millais and his family had outgrown Cromwell Place and needed to to to move to to to a a a new residence large enough to to to accommodate both his his family and his his growing professional commitments Millais wrote to William Holman Hunt: ‘My new home shall be a a a a a a a a Palace such as the Italian painters commonly used but an an eye opener to the public as an an attic is still associated with our craft’ 6 The architect for Millais’s imposing mansion at at 2 Palace Gate (fig 37) was Philip Charles Hardwick (1822-92) and the builders Cubitt and Sons the the then leading London builder-developers The plot cost £8 400 and the house was completed in early 1876 It attracted considerable contemporary interest and commentary: engravings of the celebrated new house appeared in in The The Magazine of Art Art 1881 The The Art Art Annual 1885 and Artists at at Home 1884 The Palace Gate studio was still remarked on after Millais’s death being featured
in the the the article ‘Artists’ studios as as they they were and as as they they are’ The Magazine of Art July 1901 The imposing style of Millais new house suitable for his large family and increasing artistic status is is perhaps best captured in in an an an an anecdote relating to to the historian and writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) who was sitting for his portrait the the first to be painted in in the the new studio Carlyle was accompanied to Millais’s house by his niece who was said to have asked ‘And does all this come from a a a a a paint pot?’7 `
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