The Order of Release 1746

Oil on canvas 103 x 74 cm (1852-3)

Sir John Everett Millais, Bt (1829‑1896)

The bare-footed wife in this painting securing the release of her husband, a Jacobite Rebel, an English prisoner of war. The wife was modelled by Effie Ruskin, wife of John Ruskin who later that year was to seek release from her own marriage the following year.

The picture's original title was The Ransom, early sketches reveal that Millais originally showed a purse of money being handed over. However, in the finished work he substitutes the order of release which gives the painting its current title.

The rebel's wife, carrying their small child and comforting her exhausted, wounded husband, hands an order of release to the gaoler. The expression on her face is inscrutable. She appears strangely detached from the action, which suggests that she may have been forced to sacrifice her virtue in order to save her husband. 

Millais consulted Robert on the tartans for the McIan's Highland Clans. The Jacobite wears the Gordon tartan and the little girl the Drummond, the mother's clan. The setting is indicated by the prison door. A faded primrose which has fallen from the child's hands indicates the time of year, and also symbolise her youth.

Millais sold the picture to the lawyer Joseph Arden for £400. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853 it proved so popular that a policeman had to be installed in front of the picture to move the spectators on.