All About Autumn Leaves by John Everett Millais

Title of Artwork: “Autumn Leaves”

Artwork by John Everett Millais

Year Created 1855-1859

Summary of Autumn Leaves

John Everett Millais’s Autumn Leaves (1856) was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1856. The critic John Ruskin referred to it as “the earliest instance of a wonderfully painted twilight” in his writings. Effie Millais noted in her husband’s diary that he wanted to paint a picture “full of beauty and devoid of a theme”.

All About Autumn Leaves

There are four girls gathering and raking up leaves in the garden in the sunset. Smoke rises from between the leaves as they build a bonfire, but there is no visible flame.

While Millais’ sisters-in-law, Alice and Sophy Gray, are depicted as wearing middle-class attire on the left, their working-class counterparts are depicted as wearing more rudimentary clothes on the right.

It has long been assumed that painting was a major impact on the emergence of the modernist movement.

One prominent interpretation of the artwork is that it depicts the passing of youth and beauty, two themes prevalent in Millais’ work.

He claims that Millais was influenced by Tennyson, whose house he had once helped clean out of fall leaves, according to Malcolm Warner.

Tennyson’s “Tears, idle tears” from The Princess (1847) may have inspired Warner, according to Warner:

According to the biblical account, Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden because of their sin and, as a result, their innocence was lost.

Millais replied to F.G. Stephens to thank him for his excellent evaluation after the reviewer’s “intended the painting to elicit the deepest theological contemplation via its solemnity. For this reason, I decided to focus on the burning leaves.”

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.

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