BOY WHO BIT HIS MASTER.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17680, 3 September 1929, Page 7

BOY WHO BIT HIS MASTER.

A PRECOCIOUS PAINTER

“Madam, it is your duty to bring

your son up as an artist—the vocation for which Nature has undoubtedly intended him.” Thus said the president of the Royal Academy, Sir Arthur Martin S’hee, after seeing the drawings . by the little golden curly-headed boy of nine who had travelled to London from Jersey for this momentous interview. Little Millais’ drawing master, after giving the child two years’ instruction, had declared to his parents that he could teach the child no more; such was the precocity and spontaneity of the child’s work. Millais was devoted to his mother, who. undertdok the greater part of his early education. He hated ' re-

strictions of any kind, and what he would not do out of love he would not do at all. ■ When he was sent to school rebelled against the then dull method of teaching and was thrashed for disobedience, whereupon he turned quickly and bit his schoolmaster’s hand, relates Gladys Storey in the Daily Mail. ~

For this irregularity he was prompt-

ly expelled, much to the boy’s delight, for it meant the resumption of his mother’s tuition.

Following the advice of the president of the Ro/al Academy, little Millais drew from the casts in the British Museum and for two years attended a preparatory art school in Bloomsbury. While there he carried off the silver medal of the Society of Arts for a large pencil drawing, “The Battle of Bannockburn.”

At the age of 11 he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Royal Academy schools. During his six/ years’ instruction there he gained all the honours awarded by that in-

stitution. His first picture to be exhibited at the Academy—at the age

of 17 —was “Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru.” ♦

Yet, despite his genius and unceasing work and numerous successes, he was to pass through a period of struggle, hardship and neglect, aggravated by scorn and derision from his critics. And he was glad to accept ten shillings each for ! pencil

portrait heads and from £2 to £3 apiece for those executed in oils. (In later years his prices for portraits ranged from £ISOO to £2000). Millais was not only a great' artist, but a great man, “a large-hearted," lovable fellow,” whoi-was admired by all who knew him; so full of fun and humour jyas he, ready always to appreciate and praise the work of others, modest in the estimation of his own. The briefness of his presidency of the Academy, cut short by his sad and painful death at the age of 67, was a great grief not only to his friends but also to thousands of art lovers of the day. . >