John Everett Millais - Study of Kate Dickens

Sketched in 1860 as a study for
The Black Brunswicker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_The_Black_Brunswicker.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Brunswicker_(Millais)

By 1860 Millais was a stalwart of the London art scene and was well on his way to becoming its highest paid artist. The artwork took an estimated three months to paint, and it was greatly admired at the time. It was also bought for the highest price Millais had ever received from dealer and publisher Ernest Gambart - the lucrative sum of 100 guineas. Later, in 1898, William Hesketh Lever purchased the work for his private collection.

Kate Dickens is well known as the female model. Recently engaged to Charles Collins, a good friend of Millais and Dickens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Allston_Collins
Kate began modelling for the picture in January 1960.

The Prussian Officer was modelled by a private soldier in the Life Guards who Millais spotted while visiting a friend in the Life Guards and had 'a splendid type of masculine beauty'. Sadly he died a few months later of consumption.

To observe propriety (in the days when modelling was considered close to prostitution), the two models were painted separately and she never clung to her opposite figure. but was made to hold on to a 'lay figure' and never in fact even met him.

The sittings lasted for three months, and Kate was rather intimidated by Millais who got very cross if his model moved without permission. But as an artist herself, perhaps Kate appreciated that.

In May 1860 Millais wrote to his wife Effie that he thought the painting was 'the most satisfactory work' he had exhibited so far and when it was displayed at the Summer Exhibition it ws loved by the public (though some reviews disliked it). Millais liked it so much he painted another copy for himself.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displayPicture.asp?id=170&venue=7

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/paintings/king2.html




(nb. I have brightened the image from the National Portrait Gallery)

1865
Sitters

Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872), Music critic.
Charles Allston Collins (1828-1873), Painter and writer
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Novelist
Mary ('Mamie') Dickens (1838-1896), Daughter of Charles Dickens.
Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917), Companion and confidante of Charles Dickens.
Kate Macready ('Katey') Perugini (née Dickens) (1839-1929), Painter; former wife of Charles Collins, and wife of Carlo Perugini; daughter of Charles Dickens.