The Commercial Conduct of the Saponaceous Salesman

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n They didn’t use the term ‘sellingnout’ back in those days, but the sentiment was there nonetheless. Jack Millaisnsold out after he married Effie. Of course he did. He had a wife and kids tonsupport. Remember what Cyril Connolly wrote, “There is no more sombre enemynof good art than the pram in the hall.” And Jack and Effie had eight of thenlittle ‘uns in all. So, of course he sold out.

nOr did he? He changed,ncertainly. His style became looser, more fluid. The tight, highly detailed,nclosely observed works gave way to freer brushwork, broader strokes and widernscope. Rather than just recording, he began to interpret. He discovered colournand started to use it as an element of his compositions. He turned away fromnthe theories that had governed his early works and looked to other influencesnand other artists. In short, he developed.

J E Millais – Ophelia – 1852

nIf we look at one of hisnquintessential Pre-Raphaelite works, Ophelia of 1852, we can see all thenelements that were important to him at the time. He painted the background atnEwell, Surrey, in the open air, taking the canvas and his easel out into thenfield, and faithfully painting what he saw on the bank of the Hogsmill River.nIt is an observational tour de force, botanically accurate and paintednin microscopic detail. The subject comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet andnshows the mad Ophelia as she sinks to her death, surrounded by the flowers shenhas picked in her insanity.

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nThere is a willow grows aslantna brook,

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nThat shows his hoar leaves innthe glassy stream;

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nThere with fantastic garlandsndid she come

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nOf crow-flowers, nettles,ndaisies, and long purples

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nThat liberal shepherds give angrosser name,

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nBut our cold maids do deadnmen’s fingers call them:

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nThere, on the pendent boughsnher coronet weeds

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nClambering to hang, an enviousnsliver broke;

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nWhen down her weedy trophiesnand herself

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nFell in the weeping brook. Hernclothes spread wide;

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nAnd, mermaid-like, awhile theynbore her up:

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nWhich time she chantednsnatches of old tunes;

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nAs one incapable of her ownndistress,

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nOr like a creature native andnindued

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nUnto that element: but long itncould not be

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nTill that her garments, heavynwith their drink,

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nPull’d the poor wretch fromnher melodious lay

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nTo muddy death.

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nThe model was Lizzie Siddal, andnMillais painted her in his studio in Gower Street, putting her fully-clothed inna large bath of water which was supposed to be heated by lamps underneath it.nBut he was so intent on the act of painting that when the lamps went out, hendidn’t notice and Lizzie was too polite to mention it. The water went cold andnshe caught a severe chill. Her father threatened to sue Millais for £50 inndamages, but accepted a smaller sum and settlement of the doctor’s billninstead. Rossetti blamed Millais for Lizzie’s later ill health, dating it backnto this incident.

J E Millais – The North-West Passage – 1874

nIf we turn to a later work, ThenNorth-West Passage (1874), there is an obvious difference. The brushwork isnmuch looser, the paint has been applied in broader strokes and Millais hasnabandoned the wet-into-wet technique that gives Ophelia its luminosity ofncolour (a ground of wet white paint was applied to the canvas and the colournpainted over it in thin glazes. Light is reflected back from the white groundnthrough the glaze, giving it a shining vibrancy). The composition is strongernand the details have been deliberately placed, rather than copied from nature.nThe subject is a contemporary concern in the British Empire – the search for anNorth-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, via a northernnroute over the American continent. An old, retired sea-dog sits and listens asnhis daughter reads from an account that failed to find the Passage, and hisnfrustration echoes that of the Nation that the Passage has eluded them. Hisnindignation is palpable, he burns with it, it is etched into the lines of hisnface.

Edward John Trelawny

nThe sitter for the sailor was a Captain Trelawny, known to his friendsnas a ‘jolly old pirate’, who had spent his youth sailing the Mediterranean, andnhad once been captured by Greek pirates, who took him ashore as their prisoner.nTrelawny wooed, won and wedded their chief’s daughter, and they honeymooned inna cave. He was a close friend of Byron and Shelley and wrote about them in hisnautobiography Adventures of a Younger Son.

Edward John Trelawny in Greek costume

nHe was violently opposed tonanything he considered modern and resolutely refused to sit for paintings butnMrs Millais won him round eventually. He was an advocate of Turkish baths andnstruck a deal with her that if she agreed to visit a Turkish bath with hisnniece on six occasions, he would sit for her husband six times. And so it was agreed.nThe picture was an immediate success and countless engravings of it were sold.nMillais’ son, John Guille, wrote that when he was hunting springbuck in SouthnAfrica he was caught in a tropical thunderstorm and sought refuge in the hut ofna Hottentot shepherd. There, nailed to the mud wall, was an oleograph print ofnhis father’s painting, the only decoration in the hut. In broken English, thenshepherd pointed to the Union flag in the corner of the print and said, “I likenthat cotton goods. It would make good clothes.”

J E Millais – A Child’s World (Bubbles) – 1886

nBut Millais’ popularity was notnalways well received, as a later work demonstrates. In 1886, he exhibited AnChild’s World, which shows his grandson, William Milbourne James, then fournyears old, blowing soap bubbles with a clay pipe. It is a vanitasnpainting, illustrating the beauty and fragility of life as symbolised by thenbubbles, with a young plant in a pot on the right, and a broken pot,nsymbolising death, on the left. He saw Willie blowing the bubbles one day,nthought it charming, and painted the portrait for his own pleasure. Millaisnpainted several ‘child’ pictures at the time and this may be seen as one of thenseries. Sir William Ingram, proprietor of the Illustrated London News,nvisited his studio, bought the picture and issued a coloured print of it in thennewspaper. This was seen by Thomas J Barrett, managing director of Pears, whonbought the painting (and its copyright) for two thousand guineas. Barrett thennapproached Millais with an engraving of the painting, which Pears intended tonuse as an advertisement for their soap.

Bubbles – Pears’ Soap

nMillais was initially outraged, but onnseeing the quality of the print, he grudgingly admitted its excellence butnadded that he regretted that his work was to be used in this manner. Thenadvertisement appeared in print, with a bar of Pears’ soap added at the bottomnright, and immediately the popular press went to work with their cries aboutnthe ‘degradation of Art.’ In her novel The Sorrows of Satan (1895) MarienCorelli wrote,

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n“For instance I am one of those who think the fame of Millaisnas an artist was marred when he degraded himself to the level of painting thenlittle green boy blowing bubbles of Pears’s Soap. That was an advertisement.nAnd that very incident in his career, trifling though it seems, will preventnhis ever standing on the same dignified height of distinction with such mastersnin art as Romney, Sir Peter Lely, Gainsborough or Reynolds.”

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nMillais, whonhad a slight acquaintance with Corelli, wrote and explained the circumstances,nasking, “What, in the name of your ‘Satan,’ do you mean by saying what isnnot true?” An apology came back from her, admitting that she had not knownnthe real story and had assumed Millais had painted the picture as it appearednin the advertisement, at Pears’ request. She withdrew the passage from futureneditions on the novel, and became a firm friend of the family. The painting isnnow universally known as Bubbles – and young Willie grew up to be annAdmiral, although he was always called ‘Bubbles’ too.

Bubbles – Pears’ Soap – Engraving

nThere is an argument tonbe made that the advertisement brought Millais’ work to an audience that mightnnot have otherwise seen it, and raised the standard of commercial advertising.nThink about how many people will appreciate a piece of music used in antelevision commercial or as a theme tune without realizing it is a piece bynMozart or Bach, for example.