Portraits of the Brotherhood

These are the portraits of the three initial artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Portrait Of Holman Hunt

Portrait Of Millias

Portrait Of Rossetti

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.

The Hireling Shepherd

The Hireling Shepherd (1851) By William Holman Hunt

Oil on canvas Size 76.4 x 109.5 cm

The Hireling Shepherd was painted as a snub at the Church

and highlights problems within the religion and its

congregation, which is represented by sheep, running astray

without spiritual guidance.

The shepherd represents the Protestant Church while the

shepherdess the Roman Catholic Church. The lamb on her

lap eating green apples, symbolise death.

Ligeia Siren

Ligeia Siren (1873) 42 x 34 cm coloured chalk

This piece, Ligeia Siren is said to have been inspired by a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, which is based around the legend of the Ligeia.