“ The Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1898 was devoted to his works. The list of his honours at home and abroad is a long one. Millais was one of the greatest painters of his time, and did more than any other to infuse a new and healthy life into British art. He had not the imagination of an idealist, but he could paint what he saw with a force which has seldom been excelled. As a man he was manly, frank and genial, devoted to his art and his family, and very fond of sport, especially hunting, fishing and shooting. ”

“ MILLAIS, SIR JOHN EVERETT (1829–1896) , English painter, was born at Southampton on the 8th of June 1829, the son of John William Millais, who belonged to an old Norman family settled in Jersey for many generations, and Emily Mary, née Evamy, the widow of a Mr Hodgkinson. After his birth the family returned to Jersey, where the boy soon began to sketch. At the age of eight he drew his maternal grandfather. He went to school for a short time, but showed no inclination for study, and was afterwards educated entirely by his mother. ”

“ Amongst his finer portraits of women were those of Mrs Bischoffsheim, the duchess of Westminster, Lady Campbell and Mrs Jopling.
No very serious interruption of his usual life as a prosperous English gentleman occurred in these years, except the death of his second son, George, in 1878. In 1875 he went to Holland, one of his few visits to the Continent. In 1879 he left Cromwell Place for a house at Palace Gate, Kensington, which he built, and where he died. In 1885 he was created a baronet, on the suggestion of Mr Gladstone. In 1892 his health began to break down. ”