Autumn Leaves
John Everett Millais, 1856
Autumn Leaves is a genre scene that John Everett Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, while he was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle. It shows four girls at dusk gathering and raking fallen leaves in a garden to prepare a bonfire. The fire itself is not yet visible; only smoke rises from among the leaves, and this sense of anticipation gives the scene a quiet, waiting mood. The two girls on the left, in middle-class dress, were modelled on the painter's sisters-in-law, Alice and Sophie Gray; those on the right wear rougher, working-class clothing. The critic John Ruskin praised its twilight, and Millais's wife Effie wrote that he had aimed for a picture full of beauty and without a subject. Today it is mostly read as a meditation on the transience of youth and beauty, suggested by the smoke, the dead leaves and the sombre faces. An apple held by the youngest girl may hint at the loss of childhood innocence. Millais said he hoped the picture would prompt deep religious reflection.
- Painter
- John Everett Millais
- Date
- 1856
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 104 × 74 cm
- Museum
- Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
- Movement
- Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
- Genre
- genre art
- Depicts
- autumn, twilight, girl, leaf
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