Sir John Everett Millais, Bart., P.R.A., H.R.I., H.R.C.A.

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Description

Sir John Everett Millais, P.R.A.
The Tribe of Benjamin Seizing the Daughters of Shiloh
signed and inscribed with title on a label on the stretcher
oil on canvas
40 by 50 in.
101.6 by 127 cm

Provenance

Sale, Christie's, London, March 9, 1867, lot 83

A. Cameron Miller, Esq.

Sale, Sotheby's, Belgravia, November 20, 1973, lot 44

Sale, Sotheby's, London, June 21, 1989, lot 101, illustrated

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1848

The Old British Gallery, 1877

Literature

The Art Journal, 1877, p. 16, "Those, also, who care to know how Mr Millais painted when he was a lad of seventeen, will find in this gallery his picture representing The Tribe of Benjamin Carrying off the Daughters of Shiloh, which gained him the Gold Medal of the Academy, and it is astonishing how vigorously and with what mastery he painted it."

H. P. Spielmann, Millais and His Works, William Blackwood & Sons, 1898, pp. 21, 165 & 167, no. 15

A.L. Baldry, Sir John Everett Millais, His Art and Influence, George Bell & Sons, London 1899, pp. 23 & 39

John Guille Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1899, Vol. I, pp. 18-19, 23, Vol. II, p. 467

W. Holman Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Macmillan & Co, London, 1905, Vol I, pp. 67, 75-76

Millais: An Exhibition organized by the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool & the Royal Academy of Arts London, London, January-April 1967, p. 14, exhibition catalogue

Catalogue Note

In 1840, Millais became the youngest student ever admitted to the Royal Academy, where he exhibited his first painting, Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru (London, Victoria & Albert) in 1846. A work of considerable importance to his oeuvre, Tribe of Benjamin was the second picture Millais exhibited at the Academy in 1848; it won a gold medal there when Millas was only nineteen years old.