The Vale of Rest by John Everett Millais, 1858, partially repainted 1862, oil on canvas, 40½ x 68 in, Tate Gallery, London, UK. Presented by Sir Henry Tate, 1894.
In this painting Millais consciously set out to create a mood, rather than tell a particular story. The subject is mortality, set appropriately in a graveyard. The title and subtitle, Where the weary find repose, both come from a song from Mendelssohn’s Sechs Lieder (Six Songs). Millais heard his brother William singing the song and felt it suited the picture perfectly. The work evokes the mysticism of religion, showing two nuns, one digging a grave, the other, whose rosary has a skull attached to it, looking wistfully towards the viewer. Above the distant belfry is a coffin-shaped cloud: in Scottish folklore a premonition of death.
From the display caption September 2004, Tate Collection, Tate Gallery, London
Ophelia by John Everett Millais, 1852, oil on canvas, 76 x 112 cm, Tate Gallery, London, UK
The Eve of Saint Agnes by John Everett Millais, 1863, oil on canvas, HM The Queen—The Royal Collection, purchased by HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Also captioned as Madeleine undressing on Wikipedia.
This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
The title comes from the day (or evening) before the feast of Saint Agnes (or St. Agnes’ Eve). St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, died a martyr in fourth century Rome. The eve falls on January 20; the feast day on the 21. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by John Aubrey in his Miscellanies (1696) as being associated with St. Agnes’ night. “The Eve of St. Agnes” is a long poem (42 stanzas) by John Keats, written in 1819 and published in 1820. It is widely considered to be amongst his finest poems and was influential in 19th century literature.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Agnes’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,
Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith.
John Keats, first stanza of “The Eve of St. Agnes”
A Dream of the Past—Sir Isumbras at the Ford by John Everett Millais, 1857, oil on canvas, 49 x 67 in, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Merseyside, UK
