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Sir John Everett Millais Bt. PRA, Childhood

Childhood, 1847-8

Sir John Everett Millais Bt. PRA (1829 - 1896)

RA Collection: Art

These drawings relate to Millais's first major commission, a set of six painted lunettes to decorate the hall of John Atkinson's house in Leeds (now No. 3 Hyde Terrace). Millais worked on this project during the summer of 1847 and possibly 1848. The subjects chosen for four of the lunettes represent the 'Ages of Man' - Childhood, Youth, Manhood, Old Age - while the remaining two represented Music and Art.

Millais worked on this commission prior to the foundation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. However, these pen and ink drawings indicate that he was already experimenting with the angular, stylised forms and compositions which characterise his 'Pre-Raphaelite' drawings.

The painted lunettes are now in Leeds City Art Gallery and there are further preparatory drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow.

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Object details

Title
Childhood
Artist/designer
Date
1847-8
Object type
Drawing
Place of Publication
United Kingdom
Medium
Pen and black ink on cream wove paper
Dimensions

80 mm x 176 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
02/223
Acquisition
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