"Little Speedwell's Darling Blue," by Sir John Everett Millais Bt PRA (1829-96)

Little Speedwell's Darling Blue

Sir John Everett Millais Bt PRA (1829-96)

1891-92

Oil on canvas

This late painting is a portrait of Millais's little granddaughter, Phyllis (see Millais II: 289 ), the sister of Willie James, the boy who had sat much earlier for the well-known painting, Bubbles. [Commentary continues below.]

The painting in its frame

Courtesy of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Wirral

Photographs, caption and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the images to enlarge them, and mouse over the text for links.]

The painting takes its title from Section LXXIII of Tennyson's In Memoriam, which expresses a longing for spring: "Bring orchis, bring the foxglove spire, / The little speedwell's darling blue...," and is a reminder that speedwell is one of the earliest wildflowers to open after winter. But it has a special resonance, beyond simply being a herald of spring: it is especially loved by children. According to Flora Thompson in A Country Calendar, children in rural areas called the tiny blue flowers "angels' eyes" or "birds' eyes" (68). The name itself suggests hope, and wishing someone well on their journey. Yet the flowers suggest not only hope, but — in their very size, fragility and vulnerability — transience, much like the bubbles in the painting of Phyllis's brother Willie.

Like Bubbles, this painting has been associated with Millais's genre works, which owe a debt to sentimental eighteenth-century "fancy" paintings (see Lambourne 180). But it is also an affectionate portrait which captures a meditative moment in his young grandchild's life. In hindsight, it seems particularly poignant when we learn that, whereas Willie James grew up to be an admiral, Phyllis predeceased her grandfather, dying at the age of seven in 1894 (see Cooper, Ch. 11).

Bibliography

Cooper, Suzanne Fagence. Effie Gray: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais. Kindle ed. London: Duckworth, 2012.

Lambourne, Lionel. Victorian Painting. New York & London: Phaidon (paperback), 2003.

Millais, John Guile. The Life and Letters of John Everett Millais, President of the Royal Academy. 2 vols. Vol. 2. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1899. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Universal Digital Library. Web. 9 May 2018.

Thompson, Flora. A Country Calendar and Other Wrtings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Last modified 9 May 2018