Tuesday, June 1, 2010

John Everett Millais - study for 'A Huguenot'




pencil, arched top
2 3/4 x 2"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Huguenot

Milais based the subject on Tennyson's poem Circumstance - which describes two lovers whispering by a garden wall - but it was Holman Hunt who encouraged Millais to use a specific historical setting. Millais worked on the subject 1851-2. He set the painting in 16th C France showing a Huguenot refusing to wear a Roman Catholic badge to protect him from persecution. Millais may have been inspired by Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots which includes a similar theme.

The painting was finished in 1852 and was exhibited at the RA.

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