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Lot Essay
Michael ‘Mike’ Frederick Halliday was a talented amateur artist and close friend of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, in particular William Holman Hunt, with whom he shared a Pimlico studio. He exhibited his first picture, Moel Shabod, from Capel Curing Road at the Royal Academy in 1853, around which time he made the acquaintance of John Everett Millais. Hunt set out for the Holy Land in 1854, and in his absence, Halliday came directly under Millais’ tutelage, accompanying him on hunting and fishing expeditions in the Scottish Highlands.
To what extent, if any, the 1853 picture owed a debt to the Pre-Raphaelites is unknown, however on returning to England in 1856, the same year Halliday began work on Two Highland children by a Scottish stream, Hunt was purportedly ‘amazed at the progress that Halliday had made under Millais’ tuition’ (A. Clark Amor, William Holman Hunt: The True Pre-Raphaelite, London, 1989, p. 140.) Halliday’s transformation from gifted amateur to accomplished artist was cemented with his masterpieces, both dating from around the same time as the present picture: Measuring for the Wedding Ring exhibited at the R.A. in 1856, and The Blind Basket-maker with his first child, painted in 1856.
Two Highland children by a Scottish Stream certainly betrays the strong influence of Millais, with Halliday’s handling of the young girl’s blouse bearing a striking similarity to Millais’ treatment of the same in The Violet’s Message, 1854. Moreover, its Highland river setting immediately recalls Millais’ portrait of Ruskin, painted at Glenfinlas and finished the year before.
While Halliday’s models are unknown, the titular ‘Scottish stream’ is almost certainly found in Sutherland, the very north easterly county of Scotland. The rocks at the children’s feet, with their distinctive swirling strata, appear to be 'Lewisian gneiss', a metamorphic rock exclusive in the British Isles to Sutherland and the Hebrides. While there is no evidence to suggest Millais accompanied Halliday on this particular excursion (Millais spent the summer of 1856 in Perthshire) they did visit Sutherland together in 1861, shooting at Lairg, and again the following year, fishing on the river Shin.
To what extent, if any, the 1853 picture owed a debt to the Pre-Raphaelites is unknown, however on returning to England in 1856, the same year Halliday began work on Two Highland children by a Scottish stream, Hunt was purportedly ‘amazed at the progress that Halliday had made under Millais’ tuition’ (A. Clark Amor, William Holman Hunt: The True Pre-Raphaelite, London, 1989, p. 140.) Halliday’s transformation from gifted amateur to accomplished artist was cemented with his masterpieces, both dating from around the same time as the present picture: Measuring for the Wedding Ring exhibited at the R.A. in 1856, and The Blind Basket-maker with his first child, painted in 1856.
Two Highland children by a Scottish Stream certainly betrays the strong influence of Millais, with Halliday’s handling of the young girl’s blouse bearing a striking similarity to Millais’ treatment of the same in The Violet’s Message, 1854. Moreover, its Highland river setting immediately recalls Millais’ portrait of Ruskin, painted at Glenfinlas and finished the year before.
While Halliday’s models are unknown, the titular ‘Scottish stream’ is almost certainly found in Sutherland, the very north easterly county of Scotland. The rocks at the children’s feet, with their distinctive swirling strata, appear to be 'Lewisian gneiss', a metamorphic rock exclusive in the British Isles to Sutherland and the Hebrides. While there is no evidence to suggest Millais accompanied Halliday on this particular excursion (Millais spent the summer of 1856 in Perthshire) they did visit Sutherland together in 1861, shooting at Lairg, and again the following year, fishing on the river Shin.