SIR JOHN MILLAIS AND HIS WORK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 62

SIR JOHN MILLAIS AND HIS WORK.

Simply to give the names of the most important among Sir John Millais's works would < be a long business, and surely a superfluous one ; for are they not household words, a& universally distributed as the English language itself? "Cherry Kipe" has been encountered in a Tartar hut, and "Cinderella--' in the house of a Samoaii chief. The mere mention of "The Huguenot," "The Carpenter's Shop," "The Vale of Rest" (his own. favourite), '"Ophelia," "Chill October," and a dozen more will call up a definite vi&ion to> the eyes of nine people out of ten. A certain kind of popular vog\ic i& cheaply won, and may be cheaply regarded; but such popularity as this is not to be ignored in estimating the value of a man's work. Art criticism, seems as out of place here as literary criticism in the case of Dickens. But if critics are allowed to have their say they will tell iis that something more than brilliant executive power and facile vision is demanded o£ ' the supreme artist ; and that the informing illuminating ideal, single and omnipresent, was wanting here ; he set his face towards no steady goal, he was content to paint and be happy. They will tell us that his was the imagination that sees old things freshly rather than that which creates new worlds of delight; that his landscapes were faithful transcripts rather than interpretations of: Nature ; that his portraits were wonderful renderings of character, but stopped at that, leaving unrevealed that innermost essence which lies deep below all character; that, in short, Millais was a consummate craftsman, but no poet ; an observer, not a seer. Manyhave pointed, with a sad might-have-been on their lips, to the work of his pre-Raphaelite days, the elaborate, painstaking minuteness of which contrasts so curiously with the broad, bold handling of his afterwork; and tome have even accused him — unjustly as we know — of deliberately abandoning his convictions in order to join in the hunt afterpopularity. Others have traced the more vivid imagination and deeper purpose they' discover in this earlier work to the influence of his associates, Rossctti and Hohnan HuntIn this they may be mistaken", as his son declarer they are ; and it may be that the poet, who is said to die young in most of us, wasted somewhat and grew dim in the Millais of later years. That he did not quite perish till the end, let that wonderful "Speak f Speak !" of 1895 bear witness. But, after all, if the brilliant promise and the brilliant achievement do not match "brilliant" remains the epithet for both ; and those who are content to be thankful for good work, of whatever kind, whether poetry or honest prose, and wherever found, will quarrel neither with * the Millais of "Lorenzo and Isabella" and "Ferdinand Lured by Ariel," nor with him. of "Bubbles" and "Cherry Ripe." The popular taste is not always altogether wrong, even in matters artistic; and whatever faults or limitations critics may discover in the work of Sir John Millais, the man who lived so sincerely and laboured so unceasingly for the wholesome delight of thousands, gentle and simple, can hardly be said to have mistaken Kis aim in art, or left his life-missioui unfulfilled.— Leisure Hour.