Sir John Everett Millais was an artist during the 19th Century. He was an Englishmen, born in Southampton who shows great character and perfection in his work. This painting named the hearts and trumps portrait is extremely vibrant and eye catching. The three sisters take up around half the room on the painting, leaving the other half to scenery and location.I saw this portrait at the Tate Britain on 19th April 2009 where they also presented a large collection of his other paintings. Millais lived a fairly long life who had won himself a place in the Royal Academy Schools. One of his paintings which were not in the Tate Britain named Christ In The House Of His Parents was controversial because of the realistic portrayal of the holy family labouring.
Hearts and Trumps is one of my favourite paintings mainly because Millais makes the location and scenery look extremely exotic and very innocent. The flowers in the top right, the lake, the dresses and the colours are all examples of how colourful and how perfectly he expresses himself. He is successful in representing shade in a flamboyant and intricate manner. The women all look like they have a lot of time on their hands. Playing cards is shown in the portrait. They are all looking rather bored which may have reflected the lack of activities women had at the time. All of The sisters are also all wearing identical clothes and are showing similar expressions. The women in the left shows no interest in the painter but is focused purely on cards. The sister in the middle shows some interest in the cards but also some interest in her sister. Lastly, the sister on the right shows no interest at all in the cards and seems more interested in the painter and other things happening. Therefore, the sisters are all showing similar expressions but at the same time have a different focus. Sister on the right seems to be the most friendly and confident of the three. She even shows us her cards clearly which may indicate that she is the most confident and open. They seem to have competition between them all.
Overall I find the painting a fascinating piece of work that makes you feel calm and at piece. It shows the innocence and honesty of the human nature.
The Rikowski web site, The Flow of Ideas is at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Gregory's myspace profile and his blog is at:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=92945414
