Sir John Everett Millais, P.R.A.

John Fleming;
Sir Robert Loder, his sale Christie's, London, 29 May 1908, lot 524;
Maharajah Ranjitsinghi, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, India;
Sotheby's, London, 9 April 1980, lot 37;
Private collection, U.S.A.;
Sotheby's, London, 15 July 2008, lot 55 where purchased by the present owner

Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts;
London, Whitechapel, Fine Arts Loan Exhibition, 1883, no. 35

J.G. Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, 1899, Vol.I pp. 360-1, Vol. II. p. 471

STRUCTURE This picture is in very good condition. The panel is sound and has not warped. There are no signs of craquelure and the paint surface appears to be clean and stable throughout. There is a very small area of paint loss on the book. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are very minor flecked retouchings on the girl's face and further flecked retouchings in the bottom left corner of the panel. These retouchings appear to be cosmetic and are very minor. FRAME This picture is contained in a moulded plaster frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'Millais's skill and humour in comprehending both the ease and lack of confidence with which his child models assumed their role was an essential part of the appeal such works made to adults conscious of the otherness of childhood.'
Jason Rosenfeld and Alison Smith, Millais, 2007, p.173

My First Sermon depicts Effie, the four year old daughter of the artist sitting expectantly in a high backed wooden pew in church. According to Millais' son, studies of the church pew were made at the twelfth century church of All Saints in Kingston Upon Thames. At her side is a leather-bound prayer book and the fur-trimmed coat and yellow gloves of her mother, who has brought her to witness her first sermon. The child sits with great self-possession as she listens to the sermon, and betrays no sign of weariness or impatience.

As Millais had been in 1848 one of the three principal members of the artistic movement known as Pre-Raphaelitism, in which - along with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti - he had attempted to lead the reform of English painting in favour of emotionally sincere and personal subjects, treated with intense colour and carefully observed natural detail, in the later 1850s and 1860s he remained a progressive and challenging artist. This was a period of extraordinary inventiveness and aesthetic sophistication, when painters and writers explored issues of how works of art might be understood - whether in a literal and documentary way or, as the artists of the aesthetic movement preferred, subliminally and by subtle inflection of mood. Millais's subjects which portray children, often infused with a sentimental tinge, represent this movement towards imagery with which the spectator is invited to sympathise and find delight. The present painting is an autograph replica of My First Sermon; the prime version of the subject (Fig 1. Guildhall Art Gallery, London) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863, to critical and popular acclaim. It is likely that it is this version that was painted as a commission for Thomas Agnew & Sons who wanted to produce an engraving of the painting. Letters from Millais to his wife now at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York state; 'I mean to make a small sketch of the First Sermon for Agnew' and 'I nearly finished the little replica of First Sermon yesterday... I will finish it today'. Another autograph replica of My First Sermon painted in watercolour is also known (sold in these rooms, 19 November 2008, lot 140).

In 1864 Millais painted My Second Sermon (Guildhall Art Gallery, London) as a pendant to the oil version of My First Sermon. Millais produced a series of studies of childhood, early examples including Red Riding Hood of 1864 (sold in these rooms, 19 November 2013, lot 10), The Minuet and Sleeping of 1866 and a later example being the famous Cherry Ripe of 1879 (sold in these rooms, 1 July 2004, lot 21).