James Millar (artist)

James Millar (c. 1735 – 5 December 1805) was an English portrait painter.

Born in Birmingham, Millar is recorded in the town's Poor Law levy books in 1763[1] but was to become the leading Birmingham portrait painter of the last quarter of the 18th century.[2] Subjects of his portraits include John Baskerville, Francis Eginton, John Freeth and the wife of Lunar Society of Birmingham member Thomas Day.[3]

Millar's approach was strongly influenced by the Midlands Enlightenment – one of his works depicts allegories of wisdom, and symbols of science and the arts in the shadow of the tower of Birmingham's St. Philip's Church.[4]

Millar exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists in London between 1771 and 1790,[5] and examples of his work are held by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Lichfield Guildhall, the Royal Society, the Cowper and Newton Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery, London.[6]

  1. ^ JAMES MILLAR (FL.1763-1805), London: Christie's, 2006, retrieved 27 October 2012
  2. ^ Biography for James Millar, Birmingham: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, retrieved 27 October 2012
  3. ^ Painted by James Millar, Your Paintings, Art UK, retrieved 27 October 2012
  4. ^ Allegory of Wisdom and Science (frontispiece for the Encyclopædia Britannica), Black Country History, retrieved 27 October 2012
  5. ^ MILLAR, Circle of JAMES, London: John Bennett Fine Paintings, archived from the original on 14 August 2012, retrieved 27 October 2012
  6. ^ 19 artworks by or after James Millar at the Art UK site