Portrait of the Artist's Daughter, Mary, half length

Mary Hunt Millais (1860-1944) was the artist's fourth child and the second of his daughters. Her middle name was a tribute to Millais's old friend and Pre-Raphaelite Brother, William Holman Hunt, who was her godfather. Mary was the only one of Millais's children who never married, living with her parents and helping her father in his work until his death in 1896. Millais often used his childen as models for his pictures, and Mary appears in Waking, Sisters, The Bridesmaid and The Last Rose of Summer. Waking (Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland) was the companion to Sleeping, which was sold at Christie's, London, 10 June 1999, lot 27 (£2,092,000).

Millais had begun this portrait and another similar one of his daughter Alice by 9 September 1875. He seems to have worked on them over a period of months, and finished them early in the New Year of 1876. They were part of a series of five portraits of his eldest children in an oval format, all similar in size. All except the present picture remain in the possession of the Millais family. In addition to Mary and Alice, he painted Everett, George and Effie, all in 1875-6. The series did not include his youngest children, Sophie (aged 7), John Guille (10) or Geoffrey (12). It is possible that the series was conceived to echo the famous series of Gainsborough portraits of the children of King George III, also in framed ovals, which hang in Windsor Castle.

We are grateful to Malcolm Warner for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.