From Library Journal
Fleming, the author of six other works on Victorian art, has penned the first in-depth biography of John Everett Millais since 1899, three years after his death. Millais achieved wealth and fame during his lifetime. Along with artist friends William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, espousing a doctrine of decorative naturalism with an emphasis on striking color, minute detail, and historical, literary, and biblical themes. Millais captured the texture of velvet in his famous "Mariana," for instance, and, most famously, the watery death of "Ophelia." His brookside portrait of John Ruskin preceded a scandalARuskin's unconsummated marriage was later annulled, and his wife married Millais. Fleming gives us a portrait of a talented artist and his time. One quibble: we are offered 15 black-and-white reproductions of paintings but no pictures of Millais himself. A good companion to Russell Ash's illustrated survey Sir John Everett Millais (Pavilion, 1996); recommended for academic and large public libraries.AJoseph C. Hewgley, Nashville P.L.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Among the notorious Victorian artists who called themselves Pre-Raphaelites, the most renowned was John Everett Millais. A fascinating, wonderfully diverse individual, he knew nearly "everybody who was anybody." Well-honored by his peers, he was, for forty years, Britain's most popular artist. The350 paintings he produced displayed their creator's remarkable versatility: Millais was a master of historical, mythological, Biblical, and literary subjects as well as landscapes and portraits. Astonishingly, there has been no full-length biography of Millais for a hundred years, so much of G.H. Fleming's material has never before appeared in a book. This vivid, authoritative portrait is a long-overdue contribution to art history. G.H. Fleming, an authority on the Victorian period, is the author of nine books, including Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Young Whistler, and Whistler: A Life.
