The Bridesmaid (painting)

The Bridesmaid
ArtistJohn Everett Millais
Year1851
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions27.9 cm × 20.3 cm (11.0 in × 8.0 in)
LocationFitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The Bridesmaid is an 1851 oil painting by the British artist John Everett Millais.[1] It depicts a young woman, having served as a bridesmaid, passing a piece of wedding cake through a ring nine times. These were traditional gestures in the belief they would show an image of a husband for her in the near future.[2]

Millais had emerged as both a founder and one of the leading Pre-Raphaelite artists during the mid-nineteenth century. Today the painting is in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, having been acquired in 1889.[3]

Millais painted another painting with the same title in 1879.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Prettlejohn p.144
  2. ^ Barringer p.92
  3. ^ "The Bridesmaid | Art UK".
  4. ^ "Exhibition of works by the late Sir John Everett Millais, Bart., president of the Royal Academy" (PDF). Royal Academy of London. 1929.

Bibliography

  • Barringer, Tim. Reading the Pre-Raphaelites. Yale University Press, 1999.
  • Prettlejohn, Elizabeth. The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites. Cambridge University Press, 2012.