The Order of Release by John Everett Millais (Interpretation and Analysis)

-

The Order of Release
Source: Wikimedia Commons
I’ve decided that this is going to be the unofficial week of John Everett Millais on this blog. As a painter and as a person, I find Millais to be particularly interesting.

Throughout his long and storied career, Millais explored and experimented with different approaches and types of painting. However, he is probably most famous as a Pre-Raphaelite artist. Later in his career, other artists and art critics would say that he abandoned his Pre-Raphaelite convictions for financial success as a more commercial painter. In my opinion, however, this change in his style was occasioned by growing maturity and a desire to expand his artistic horizons.

The Order of Release was one of Millais’ early masterpieces, painted during his early career when he was still closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The Pre-Raphaelites espoused realism and tended to gravitate towards serious subjects, which were often imbued with rich symbolism. Although many Pre-Raphaelite paintings tended to be inspired by the Medieval age, literature, or religion, Millais eventually began to venture into painting more modern subjects.

The Order of Release depicts an imagined scene from the Jacobite rising of 1745. During this conflict, Charles Stuart (the grandson of King James II, who was himself deposed) attempted to invade England and depose King George II. Many Scots backed his claim, but their armies were eventually defeated at the Battle of Culloden. The painting depicts one such defeated Scottish soldier being released from an English prison.

The piece captures the exact moment of his reunion with his family. Here, we see the soldier embracing his wife as she hands the titular “order of release” to the prison guard. Millais’ future wife, Effie Gray, modeled for the face of the wife in the painting; and it seems that she was a source of particular inspiration for Millais. Compositionally, The Order of Release revolves around the figure of the wife. She is depicted as a pillar of strength for her family; her husband, child, and even the family’s dog all lean on her. Yet, she is also the most detached figure in the painting. While her husband seems to be overcome by emotion, the wife’s expression is alert and conscious as she hands over the order of release. For some reason or another, she seems to be unconnected with all the action around her.

The tension and contrast in this little family is what makes the painting interesting. Viewers could easily be tempted to imagine a backstory for the figures and to picture the trials and tribulations they have undergone. Yet, It is important to remember that, by the time Millais created the painting, the rebellion was one hundred years in the past. From such a great distance, it is easy to narrativize and romanticize fraught and traumatic events. Despite, Millais refuses to make The Order of Release an easy painting to view. It is not simply a happy family reunion; it contains layers of symbolism and emotional complexity that take time and thought to decipher.
 
It is said that the painting was so popular when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy that police officers had to be placed in front of The Order of Release to keep the crowds moving. It certainly captured the public imagination in 1853, and it has lost little of its emotional power today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Le Chat Aux Poissons Rouges by Henri Matisse (Interpretation and Analysis)

-
Image
Le Chat Aux Poissons Rouges Source: Pinterest French artist Henri Matisse is rather famous for his paintings of goldfish. In fact, one of his most famous paintings, entitled Goldfish , depicts several of the aforementioned fish swimming in a bowl. Matisse is one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century. His work is closely associated with the Fauvist movement and is generally characterized by great energy and rich, intense colors. Based on my research , Matisse began painting goldfish after he traveled to North Africa. In Morocco, Matisse observed locals watching goldfish swim in their bowls as they sunk into a meditative state. The fish subsequently became a symbol for this sense of tranquility, coming to represent an idyllic version of the world only accessible through joyous day-dreams. These calming fish are prominent in this painting, which is entitled Le Chat Aux Poissons Rouges (which translates to The Cat With Red Fishes ). However, the serene energy of the f...
Read more

Mural La Plena by Rafael Tufiño (Interpretation and Analysis)

-
Image
Mural la Plena Source: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico Today I want to chat about a monumental piece of art that I recently had the pleasure of seeing at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. As the name suggests, Mural La Plena is a massive mural, fifteen by thirty feet in size, that was created by Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño to commemorate la plena, a wildly popular genre of music that was born in the city of Ponce around 1900. The mural, which might appear abstract or incomprehensible to a viewer unfamiliar with the subject matter, illustrates the lyrics of popular plena songs. For example, the blue-green figure that dominates the upper half of the mural represents the hurricane from the plena “Temporal,” which mourns the destruction caused by a storm. Plena, as a genre, tells stories. According to my research , the lyrics come from current events, re-telling the stories that affected the lives of the people of Ponce. It began as a way for people of low socio-economic sta...
Read more

Five Puerto Rican Artists You Should Know

-
Image
The island of Puerto Rico has a long and vibrant artistic tradition. Western, Indigenous, and African cultures have all left their mark on Puerto Rican art, creating a colorful and unique visual legacy. While Puerto Rican artists have demonstrated their excellence throughout the years— from the creators of the captivating Taino petroglyphs to the sophisticated and subtle works of the Modernist painters—Puerto Rican art has received little attention from art historians and the wider art world. Here are five underappreciated Puerto Rican artists that you should know: 1. José Campeche José Campeche is often known as the first Puerto Rican painter in the Western history of fine arts. He was primarily known for his religious paintings and his portraits of elite Puerto Ricans, and today his work is recognized as some of the finest examples of Rococo art produced in the Americas. Campeche’s personal story is also inspiring. The son of a slave who had purchased his own freedom, Campech...
Read more