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Lot Essay
The sitter for this picture was a professional model called Miss Ford, who also sat for the figure of Madeline in The Eve of St Agnes (H.M. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), which Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863. This is generally assumed to be the date of our picture too, although when it was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1923 the landscape was said to be 'probably five years earlier', and when it appeared in the saleroom in 1969, a date of 1860 was proposed. On neither occasion was the authority or reasoning for these variations given, but it is possible that the idea that the landscape is earlier than the figure originated with J.P. Heseltine, who lent the picture to the Tate exhibition.
At all events, like The Eve of St Agnes, The Farmer's Daughter belongs to the period when Millais was moving from his early Pre-Raphaelite manner to a bolder and more painterly idiom. The development had started at least by 1857 when he exhibited A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight) at the Academy, invoking the ire of Ruskin for the 'reversal of principle' which, in his view, it embodied. The Vale of Rest (Tate Gallery) and Apple Blossoms (Port Sunlight) followed in 1859, the latter particularly showing a much bolder touch, while in The Black Brunswicker (Port Sunlight) and My First Sermon (Guildhall Art Gallery), exhibited respectively in 1860 and 1863, Millais began to explore those sentimental themes of childhood and star-crossed love which were to bring him such phenomenal popularity. The fact that in 1863, the very year that he probably painted our picture, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, the guardian of the academic tradition which Pre-Raphaelitism had been launched to subvert, speaks for itself. The Eve of St Agnes still treats a quintessentially Pre-Raphaelite theme with a good deal of that emotional intensity that no-one was better at evoking than the PRB, but the handling is as free as might be expected of a picture that was completed in five days. In the Souvenir of Velazquez (Royal Academy), his RA Diploma picture exhibited in 1868, Millais publically paraded one of his new sources of inspiration, and in pictures like The Boyhood of Raleigh (1870; Tate Gallery), Hearts are Trumps (1872; Tate Gallery) and The North-West Passage (1874; Tate Gallery), his later style was fully and unequivocally revealed.
The Farmer's Daughter enjoys a distinguished provenance. Its first recorded owner was Albert Grant, who had, as his anonymous sale catalogue put it, 'a highly important collection of modern pictures and water-colour drawings, formed with great judgement.' The 185 lots included works by nearly every well-known Victorian artist, but Millais was particularly well represented since Grant also owned two of his most famous works, Christ in the House of His Parents (The Carpenter's Shop) (1850; Tate Gallery) and The Black Brunswicker (1860; Port Sunlight). Grant can only have had The Farmer's Daughter for a few years as his sale took place in 1868. The picture then disappeared until 1899 when it found its way, via Agnew's, into the hands of C.A. Barton. Here again it was in good company since Barton had a fine collection of British pictures, both 18th and 19th century. This he sold at Christie's in May 1902 when he gave up his house in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead.
By 1911 the picture belonged to J.P. Heseltine, a trustee of the National Gallery for nearly forty years and one of the most highly respected connoisseurs of his day. Himself a competent draughtsman and etcher, Heseltine was a friend of many artists, notably Charles Keene. Norman Shaw built him a house in Queen's Gate, Kensington, although by the time he died in 1929 he was living at 91 Eaton Square, Belgravia. As a collector Heseltine was omnivorous and eclectic. His three-day posthumous sale in May 1935 included paintings by old and modern masters, old-master and 19th-century European drawings, and English drawings and watercolours. He was also interested in sculpture and ceramics. The Farmer's Daughter was his only work by Millais, but it was a characteristic Heseltine picture in that it shows an attractive female model. The collection included many works of this kind - by Liotard, Highmore, Boucher, Fragonard, Boilly, Ingres and others.
In 1911 Heseltine lent the picture to a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Gallery. Most of the loans came from the Birmingham Art Gallery, but a few things were borrowed from private sources. Still in Heseltine's possession, the picture returned to the Tate in 1923 when, a little surprisingly considering how out of fashion the Victorians were by this date, the Gallery organised an exhibition of paintings and drawings 'of the 1860 period.' There it must have been seen by Sir Edmund Davis, who was lending one of his own pictures by Millais, a sketch for The White Cockade. He may also have noticed with interest that the model was identified in the catalogue as Miss Ford, since at this very moment he was engaged in buying Millais's The Eve of St Agnes, the larger but contemporary work for which she had posed. The Tate exhibition lasted from 27 April to 29 July 1923, and Davis bought The Eve of St Agnes when it was sold by Anthony Prinsep at Christie's on 22 June. It is tempting to imagine that this discovery inspired him to acquire The Farmer's Daughter at a later date, probably from the Fine Art Society which bought it at the Heseltine sale in 1935.
In his way, Davis was as remarkable a collector as Heseltine. Born in Australia, he made a fortune from mining in South Africa and then settled in London. He and his wife Mary, herself a talented artist, lived in Lansdowne Road, Holland Park, and Chilham Castle, Kent, filling both houses with works of art and entertaining their many friends in the worlds of art and music. Conder, Brangwyn and Pryde all decorated rooms for them, and Ricketts and Shannon gave constant advice on the formation of their collection. It is possible that the two artists were responsible for pointing out that Miss Ford was the sitter in both The Eve of St Agnes and The Farmer's Daughter. They were experts on the Pre-Raphaelites, and would have known that she had modelled for The Eve of St Agnes as this is mentioned in J.G. Millais's biography of his father, published in 1899. However, they would not have been involved in Davis's purchase of The Farmer's Daughter after 1935 since by this date Ricketts was dead, and poor Shannon, having lost his wits after hitting his head in falling from a ladder, was living in retirement at Kew.
The picture has had various titles. Millais himself presumably called it Milking Time since it appeared as such in the Grant sale of 1868. It still had this title in the lists published by M.H. Spielmann (1898) and J.G. Millais (1899), but when it was bought by Agnew's in 1899 it had become The Milkmaid, and it retained this title when it appeared in the Barton sale of 1902 and when J.P. Heseltine lent it to the Tate exhibition in 1911. When he lent it again in 1923, it was called Girl in Cornfield (Miss Ford), which suggests that, just as he may have believed that the landscape was earlier than the figure, so he was responsible for identifying the model and wanted to draw attention to his discovery. However, it was obviously an unsatisfactory title, and when the picture appeared at his sale in 1935, it was called The Farmer's Daughter. This too may have been his invention; at any rate the picture has been known by this title ever since.
We are grateful of Dr Malcolm Warner for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
At all events, like The Eve of St Agnes, The Farmer's Daughter belongs to the period when Millais was moving from his early Pre-Raphaelite manner to a bolder and more painterly idiom. The development had started at least by 1857 when he exhibited A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight) at the Academy, invoking the ire of Ruskin for the 'reversal of principle' which, in his view, it embodied. The Vale of Rest (Tate Gallery) and Apple Blossoms (Port Sunlight) followed in 1859, the latter particularly showing a much bolder touch, while in The Black Brunswicker (Port Sunlight) and My First Sermon (Guildhall Art Gallery), exhibited respectively in 1860 and 1863, Millais began to explore those sentimental themes of childhood and star-crossed love which were to bring him such phenomenal popularity. The fact that in 1863, the very year that he probably painted our picture, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, the guardian of the academic tradition which Pre-Raphaelitism had been launched to subvert, speaks for itself. The Eve of St Agnes still treats a quintessentially Pre-Raphaelite theme with a good deal of that emotional intensity that no-one was better at evoking than the PRB, but the handling is as free as might be expected of a picture that was completed in five days. In the Souvenir of Velazquez (Royal Academy), his RA Diploma picture exhibited in 1868, Millais publically paraded one of his new sources of inspiration, and in pictures like The Boyhood of Raleigh (1870; Tate Gallery), Hearts are Trumps (1872; Tate Gallery) and The North-West Passage (1874; Tate Gallery), his later style was fully and unequivocally revealed.
The Farmer's Daughter enjoys a distinguished provenance. Its first recorded owner was Albert Grant, who had, as his anonymous sale catalogue put it, 'a highly important collection of modern pictures and water-colour drawings, formed with great judgement.' The 185 lots included works by nearly every well-known Victorian artist, but Millais was particularly well represented since Grant also owned two of his most famous works, Christ in the House of His Parents (The Carpenter's Shop) (1850; Tate Gallery) and The Black Brunswicker (1860; Port Sunlight). Grant can only have had The Farmer's Daughter for a few years as his sale took place in 1868. The picture then disappeared until 1899 when it found its way, via Agnew's, into the hands of C.A. Barton. Here again it was in good company since Barton had a fine collection of British pictures, both 18th and 19th century. This he sold at Christie's in May 1902 when he gave up his house in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead.
By 1911 the picture belonged to J.P. Heseltine, a trustee of the National Gallery for nearly forty years and one of the most highly respected connoisseurs of his day. Himself a competent draughtsman and etcher, Heseltine was a friend of many artists, notably Charles Keene. Norman Shaw built him a house in Queen's Gate, Kensington, although by the time he died in 1929 he was living at 91 Eaton Square, Belgravia. As a collector Heseltine was omnivorous and eclectic. His three-day posthumous sale in May 1935 included paintings by old and modern masters, old-master and 19th-century European drawings, and English drawings and watercolours. He was also interested in sculpture and ceramics. The Farmer's Daughter was his only work by Millais, but it was a characteristic Heseltine picture in that it shows an attractive female model. The collection included many works of this kind - by Liotard, Highmore, Boucher, Fragonard, Boilly, Ingres and others.
In 1911 Heseltine lent the picture to a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Gallery. Most of the loans came from the Birmingham Art Gallery, but a few things were borrowed from private sources. Still in Heseltine's possession, the picture returned to the Tate in 1923 when, a little surprisingly considering how out of fashion the Victorians were by this date, the Gallery organised an exhibition of paintings and drawings 'of the 1860 period.' There it must have been seen by Sir Edmund Davis, who was lending one of his own pictures by Millais, a sketch for The White Cockade. He may also have noticed with interest that the model was identified in the catalogue as Miss Ford, since at this very moment he was engaged in buying Millais's The Eve of St Agnes, the larger but contemporary work for which she had posed. The Tate exhibition lasted from 27 April to 29 July 1923, and Davis bought The Eve of St Agnes when it was sold by Anthony Prinsep at Christie's on 22 June. It is tempting to imagine that this discovery inspired him to acquire The Farmer's Daughter at a later date, probably from the Fine Art Society which bought it at the Heseltine sale in 1935.
In his way, Davis was as remarkable a collector as Heseltine. Born in Australia, he made a fortune from mining in South Africa and then settled in London. He and his wife Mary, herself a talented artist, lived in Lansdowne Road, Holland Park, and Chilham Castle, Kent, filling both houses with works of art and entertaining their many friends in the worlds of art and music. Conder, Brangwyn and Pryde all decorated rooms for them, and Ricketts and Shannon gave constant advice on the formation of their collection. It is possible that the two artists were responsible for pointing out that Miss Ford was the sitter in both The Eve of St Agnes and The Farmer's Daughter. They were experts on the Pre-Raphaelites, and would have known that she had modelled for The Eve of St Agnes as this is mentioned in J.G. Millais's biography of his father, published in 1899. However, they would not have been involved in Davis's purchase of The Farmer's Daughter after 1935 since by this date Ricketts was dead, and poor Shannon, having lost his wits after hitting his head in falling from a ladder, was living in retirement at Kew.
The picture has had various titles. Millais himself presumably called it Milking Time since it appeared as such in the Grant sale of 1868. It still had this title in the lists published by M.H. Spielmann (1898) and J.G. Millais (1899), but when it was bought by Agnew's in 1899 it had become The Milkmaid, and it retained this title when it appeared in the Barton sale of 1902 and when J.P. Heseltine lent it to the Tate exhibition in 1911. When he lent it again in 1923, it was called Girl in Cornfield (Miss Ford), which suggests that, just as he may have believed that the landscape was earlier than the figure, so he was responsible for identifying the model and wanted to draw attention to his discovery. However, it was obviously an unsatisfactory title, and when the picture appeared at his sale in 1935, it was called The Farmer's Daughter. This too may have been his invention; at any rate the picture has been known by this title ever since.
We are grateful of Dr Malcolm Warner for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.