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Sir John Everett Millais P.R.A.
Southampton 1829 - 1896 London
Millais,
co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelites, like Holman
Hunt, joined The Etching Club, though by the
mid-1850’s, when they became members, the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood itself (founded 1848)
had dissolved. From that period Millais’s
painting became increasingly ‘Academic’ (he
would be elected President of the Royal Academy
in 1896) and sentimental.
The
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, several of whose
members were also poets themselves, had, like
the Etching Club, a strong literary bias. Millais
etched a total of eleven plates between 1850
and 1878. Of these, five were published by the
old Etching Club and three were produced under
the auspices of the Junior Etching Club.
Summer
Indolence
90 x 155 mm (image); 175 x 252 mm (bevelled
plate); 213 x 266 mm (sheet)
Original
etching, 1861. The plate monogrammed and dated.
Published state with the additionally printed name
and Plate number 10. From Passages from modern
English Poets illustrated by the Junior Etching
Club, first published by Day & Son 1862, the Tegg re-issue, 1874-75. On strong wove. The full sheet as issued, gilt on three edges.
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Additional
Information about the Print
Three
'complementary' poems accompanied Millais' etching:
- Indolence (Anonymous);
- Love
in Idleness by Laman Blanchard
- Summer
Idleness by Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen
The
poems were chosen by the editor, Alaric A Watts, "calculated to illustrate
the predominant sentiment of the design" .
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