The Order of Release

The scene is set after the Jacobite rising of 1745. A Highland woman shows a guard the order that will secure the release of her husband, imprisoned after the revolt. She holds their child while he embraces her, and the tension of the moment gathers around the act of handing over the document. Effie Gray posed for the female figure, and while working on the picture Millais began a friendship with her, the wife of his leading critical supporter, John Ruskin. The work is often seen as the start of Millais's move away from the highly medievalist Pre-Raphaelitism of his early years: its dark, loosely defined background and strong chiaroscuro set it apart from works such as Ophelia. Yet its interest in strained relationships disrupted by historical drama links it to earlier themes, as in A Huguenot and The Proscribed Royalist. Bought in 1853 by the lawyer Joseph Arden, it later reached the Tate, which received it as a gift in 1898. Its companion piece, The Rescue, completes the story.

Painter

John Everett Millais

Date

1852

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

103 × 74 cm

Museum

Tate, London

Movement

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Genre

history painting

Depicts

Jacobite rising of 1745, dog, Scotland, family

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