In Memoriam, by William Henry Millais (1828-1899). 1857. Watercolour and gouache and heightened with gum arabic on paper; 18 3/8 x 12 1/2 inches (46.5 x 32 cm). Private collection. Image © Christie's, by kind permission (right click disabled; not to be downloaded).
This watercolour is unusual in Millais' work in not being a pure landscape but featuring two children, a young girl and boy, in the foreground. The boy is gathering a bouquet of assorted spring flowers, likely to leave at a gravesite. The flowers at his feet appear to be pansies, which in the language of flowers can signify remembrance. The tombstone in the centre, immediately behind the girl's head, is inscribed "SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF MARY LONSDALE." It is unclear who Mary Lonsdale is, but perhaps she is the children's mother, thereby accounting for the painting's title In Memoriam. Millais's own first wife, Judith Agnes Boothby, was to die in childbirth in 1862; maternal mortality was far from uncommon in Victorian times. Further graves and a clump of trees are in the background. This watercolour is painted with painstaking Pre-Raphaelite detail in bright colours and in a palette similar to his landscape The Valley of the Rocks painted that same year.
Millais' painting is reminiscent of Arthur Hughes's Home From the Sea, initially painted in 1856-57 but which Hughes reworked in 1862. This painting was submitted to the Royal Academy in 1857 but was rejected. It was shown, however, at the first Pre-Raphaelite group exhibition at Russell Place in 1857 as The Mother's Grave. At that time the painting featured only a young boy recently returned from sea reclining in a churchyard and mourning his dead mother. In 1862 Hughes added the older sister dressed in black, seated to the left of the boy, making its composition closer to that of Millais. Hughes is known to have admired Millais's work referring to his "picturesque but somewhat restless individuality" and added that "his forte was watercolour landscapes, exquisitely drawn" (qtd. in Gere 127).
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Gere, John. Pre-Raphaelite Drawings in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press, 1994.
Victorian & British Impressionist Art. London: Christie's (June 15, 2011), lot 28., 25.
Created 12 November 2024