Working Practice

Approaches to painting in the time of Millais  |  Painting in the Landscape  |  Letters and Diary Extracts
Painting in the Studio  |  The Model  |  Preparatory Sketches  |  Underdrawing & Spandrels

Preparatory Sketches

For such an important painting, Millais did only a few preparatory sketches.

• Study for the head of Elizabeth Siddall (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, pencil 9x12 inches, see below).
• A finished sketch of Ophelia (Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, see below).
• A watercolour version of the study of the head painted in 1865/6 exists in a private collection.
• An oil study Head of Ophelia (with Wreath), 1852.
  This is possibly the picture sold at the auctioneers, Christie's, as part of the BG Windus sale on 19 July, 1862, (its current whereabouts are unknown).

Sir John Everett Millais Study for the head of Elizabeth Siddall, 1852  © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Sir John Everett Millais Slight Sketch for the painting Ophelia, 1852 © The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1973. 15 verso

Sir John Everett Millais Ophelia, 1852 © Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery

Sir John Everett Millais The Artist Attending the Mourning of a Young Girl, circa 1847 © Tate, London 2003

In 1847, Millais produced an oil sketch of The Artist Attending the Mourning of a Young Girl (Oil on board support: 187 x 257 mm painting, c.1847), shown left, which can be compared to Ophelia. The sketch represents an event in Millais's life when he was sent for by people he did not know, but who knew that he was a young artist. He was asked to draw a portrait of a girl in her coffin before her burial. The scene moved him so much that when he got home he made this sketch showing himself being asked to draw the girl's portrait (see image above right). Read more about this sketch.