The Foolish Virgins

8. Juni 1829

Born

1840

The youngest student in the Royal Academy’s history

In December 1840, at the age of eleven, he entered the Royal Academy Schools, the youngest student ever admitted, and studied there for six years.

1847

Founds the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with Hunt and Rossetti

While at the Royal Academy Schools he met William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and in September 1847 the three formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood at the Millais family home at 83 Gower Street, off Bedford Square.

1850

The scandal over “Christ in the House of His Parents”

Christ in the House of His Parents (1850) was judged excessively realistic, showing a working-class Holy Family in a messy carpentry workshop, and The Times called it outrageous. Millais was undaunted: the critic John Ruskin saw his outstanding talent at once and backed him, and his works were always accepted for the Academy’s exhibitions, however radical.

summer 1853

A summer at Glenfinlas: falling in love with Effie Ruskin

In the summer of 1853 John Ruskin and his wife Effie invited Millais to spend the summer with them at Glenfinlas, where Millais and Effie fell in love. Effie modelled for his The Order of Release; her marriage to Ruskin, which had lasted several years, was annulled after her parents realised something was wrong and she filed for annulment, and Millais and Effie then married.

13. August 1896

Died