The Black Brunswicker

The Black Brunswicker is a painting by John Everett Millais from 1860, now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Millais drew on the Black Brunswickers, German volunteers who fought in the Napoleonic wars and took part in the Hundred Days campaign, and on the contrast between the dark cloth of the uniform and the pale satin of the dress. The scene shows a soldier about to leave: his sweetheart, in an evening gown, tries to close the door to keep him back while he opens it. It has been linked to the Duchess of Richmond's ball in 1815, from which officers rode out towards Quatre Bras. The dog, wearing a red ribbon like its mistress, watches attentively. In a letter to his wife, Millais presented the work as a companion piece to The Huguenot, his first major success, which shows a similarly painful parting. An engraving of Napoleon crossing the Alps hangs on the wall, and critics read it in different ways, as a sign of the woman's admiration for the emperor or as an allusion to later campaigns. Millais is said to have taken particular care over the uniform, though the hairstyle and dress look closer to 1830 fashion than to 1815.

Painter

John Everett Millais

Date

1860

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

104 × 68 cm

Museum

Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool

Movement

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Genre

genre art

Depicts

engraving, military uniform, chignon, dog, moustache, earring, standing, dress

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