Saint Martin's Summer

John Everett Millais left the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which he was a founding member, to join the English Aesthetic Movement. Honoured by the Royal Academy of Arts, he was in demand as a portraitist. During hunting and fishing trips in Scotland, however, he painted a few landscapes. With astounding subtlety, this canvas gives a detailed view of a body of water around Rumbling Bridge, near Dunkeld, Perthshire. This highly personal work harks back to the Pre-Raphaelite style of his youth in the meticulousness of execution. Beyond the apparently objective illustration of a late autumn mild spell and tranquil days foretelling peace, Millais fills this nature setting with the distant celestial light, evoking fin-de-siècle Symbolist visions.