| Autumn Leaves | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | John Everett Millais |
| Year | 1856 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 104 cm × 74 cm (41 in × 29 in) |
| Location | Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester |
Autumn Leaves (1856) is a painting by John Everett Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856. It was described by the critic John Ruskin as "the first instance of a perfectly painted twilight."[1] Millais's wife Effie wrote that he had intended to create a picture that was "full of beauty and without a subject".[2]
The picture depicts four girls in the twilight collecting and raking together fallen leaves in a garden, a location now occupied by Rodney Gardens in Perth, Scotland. They are making a bonfire, but the fire itself is invisible, only smoke emerging from between the leaves. The two girls on the left, modelled on Millais's sisters-in-law Alice and Sophie Gray,[3] are portrayed in middle-class clothing of the era; the two on the right are in rougher, working class clothing.
The painting has been seen as one of the earliest influences on the development of the aesthetic movement. [4]
A sculpture in Rodney Gardens, known as "Millais Viewpoint", recreates the view through two lower corners of a picture frame, made of stone.[5]
- ^ Ruskin, John (1906). Pre-Raphaelitism: Lectures on Architecture & Painting, &c. London: Dent. p. 220.
- ^ Parris, Leslie (1984). Pre-Raphaelite Papers. London: Tate Gallery. p. 137. ISBN 0946590028.
- ^ Suzanne Fagence Cooper (2010) The Model Wife, chapter 12
- ^ Whistler's 'The White Girl': Painting, Poetry and Meaning, Robin Spencer, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 140, No. 1142 (May, 1998), pp. 300-311
- ^ "Places to Visit in Scotland - Norie-Miller Park, Rodney Gardens, Bellwood Riverside Park, Perth" – Rampant Scotland