John Everett Millais - News from Home - Walters 3785

Millais was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood in 1848. However, he subsequently abandoned the bright colors and the minute attention to detail associated with the Brotherhood's style of painting for a broader approach. Marrying a Scottish woman, formerly the wife of the critic John Ruskin in 1855, he developed an interest in Scottish subjects. In this scene from the Crimean War (1854-1856), he shows a soldier of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, the famed Black Watch, reading a letter from home. When this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, Ruskin ridiculed the soldier's immaculate appearance under the circumstances.