James Wyatt - an early patron of John Everett Millais

James Wyatt and his Granddaughter Mary

More paintings of the Wyatt family by Millais.

"John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the first artistic link between Oxford and the Pre-Raphaelites. … Arriving in Oxford in 1846, Millais met his first patron, the art dealer and framer James Wyatt (1774-1853), who provided him with studio space in the High Street and commissioned portraits of himself and his family. Wyatt’s support gave Oxford an important place in Millais’s early Pre-Raphaelite work. The artist often painted in the open air using the landscape of Oxford, the woodlands of Botley and Shotover, in the backgrounds of his pictures."

Sir John Everett Millais - The Return of the Dove to the Ark

Earlier today ArtMagick shared a link to the Ashmolean Museum website's news concerning The Return of the Dove to the Ark by Sir John Everett Millais. The painting was selected by the Oxford based museum as part of the BBC's new series,
A History of the World.

This is a new partnership between the BBC, the British Museum and other museums and institutions across the UK -
BBC - A History of the World.


Photograph above courtesy Martin Beek.
It was taken in 2008 at the Ashmolean Museum.
Millais's portrait of Thomas Combe is seen to the left in the photograph.

Thomas Combe

Many of the Pre-Raphaelite pictures at the Ashmolean Museum
come from the collection of Thomas Combe and his wife,
important early patrons of the movement.

"Thomas Combe (1796-1872), a senior partner in Oxford University Press from 1851 until his death, was a close friend of Millais, who advised him on the formation of his collection. After Thomas Combe's death, his widow Martha acquired further works by the Pre-Raphaelites, and bequeathed the whole collection to the Ashmolean in 1893."

An interesting article, Jericho and the Pre-Raphaelites:
"Few people are aware that the area of Oxford known as Jericho has a number of striking connections with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood ... " continued here.