millais – Robin A Crawford

Millais was drawn to the river Tay not only to paint but, like so many others, came to fish. Here the artist becomes model, the epitome of the Victorian sporting gentleman. The artist is posed on a Tay coble rowing boat, a favourite of anglers on the river for centuries. Beside him is the ghillie who helped him land the salmon and trout displayed for us to admire on the river bank.

The photograph was taken by his friend Rupert Potter in 1881 on the river near Dalguise. Potter and his family, including his daughter Beatrix, spent many summers holidaying on the Tay around Dunkeld. Beatrix was a keen artist and photographer too. Sometimes Millais would ask Beatrix to photograph the scene he was painting as an aide memoire for him when he worked it up later in his studio.

The title of my new book comes from this riverscape by Sir John Everett Millais. It was painted near Dunkeld, Perthshire in 1876. Millais, the leading English painter of his day, has many connections to the Tay not least through the pre-eminent Victorian art critic John Ruskin. Ruskin was a champion of his art.

Ruskin’s family had lived at Bowerswell House overlooking the Tay in Perth, later it was owned by the family of Effie Gray. Ruskin and Gray married in 1848.

Ruskin had invited the Pre-Raphaelite painter from London to holiday with him and Effie in Scotland. Though painted later there are suggestions of autobiography in the picture. Against the background of the Ruskin’s unconsummated marriage the wild torrent of the upland river roars over the twisted geology of the petrified Highland rocks. As the season changes among the riverside trees the raging passions alter in the trio’s relationship. Millais and Gray fell in love. After the Ruskin’s marriage was annulled they married, Effie giving birth to eight children.

The upland river cascading over rocks, in the eagle above can you see the painting’s composition reflected in the cover of the book?

‘The Sound of Many Waters’ 1876 by John Everett Millais (1829-1896)

National Trust for Scotland, Fyvie Castle

Tag: millais

Sound of Many Waters 2

The Sound of Many Waters