Name: SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, BT., P.R.A (SOUTHAMPTON 1829-1896 LONDON)
Brand: Portrait of Alice Sophia Caroline Stuart Wortley
Price: 70000.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, BT., P.R.A (SOUTHAMPTON 1829-1896 LONDON)
Portrait of Alice Sophia Caroline Stuart Wortley
signed with monogram and dated '1887' (lower left)
oil on canvas
44 x 34 in. (111.7 x 86.4 cm.)

The Rt. Hon. Charles Stuart Wortley, M.P., the sitter's husband, by 1889 and by descent to their daughter,
the Hon. Clare Stuart Wortley, bequeathed by her in 1945 to
Sir Ralph Millais, Bt., the artist's grandson.
The Property of Sir Ralph Millais, Bt.; Christie’s, Edinburgh, 30 April 1986, lot 101.
Private collection, UK, until
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 25 October 1991, lot 60, acquired after the sale for the present collection.

Times, 2 May 1887, p. 12
Pall Mall Gazette, 2 May 1887, p. 4.
Standard, 2 May 1887, p. 2.
The Athenaeum, 7 May 1887, p. 614.
Illustrated London News, no. 90, 7 May 1887, p. 529.
Academy, no. 31, 14 May 1887, p. 348.
Artist and Journal of Home Culture 8, 1 June 1887, p. 186.
M.H. Spielmann, Millais and His Works: With Special Reference to the Millais Exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1898, pp. 93, 176, no. 285.
J.G. Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, London, 1899, II, pp. 243, 483, illustrated.
A.L. Baldry, Sir John Everett Millais, His Art and Influence, London, 1899, pp. 59 & 117.
G.F. Millais, Sir John Everett Millais, London, 1979, p. 15.
M. Kennedy, Portrait of Elgar, Oxford, 1982, illustrated facing p. 160.

London, Grosvenor Gallery, 1887, no. 51.
London, Royal Academy, Works by the Late Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., 1898, no. 40, lent by The Rt. Hon. Charles Stuart Wortley, M.P..
London, Royal Academy, and Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, PRB Millais PRA, January - April 1967, no. 110, lent by Sir Ralph Millais, Bt.

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Lot Essay

This charming portrait of Alice Sophia Caroline, the fifth child and third daughter of Millais and his wife Effie, was painted in 1887 to mark the occasion of her marriage to Charles Stuart-Wortley, MP for Hallam in Sheffield, the previous year.

Carrie, as she was known in the family, shared her father’s passion for music from an early age and developed into an accomplished pianist. These talents she shared with her husband, music being the couple’s great bond, and both husband and wife would play grand pianos in the drawing room of their Norman Shaw house, no. 7 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Their special vehicles were the Schumann and Grieg concertos, with Carrie taking the solo part and Charles the orchestral arrangement.

The couple moved in cultured circles and in 1897 Carrie met the composer Sir Edward Elgar and this marked the beginning of a close and lifelong friendship. An early enthusiast of his music, Carrie would regularly play through many of his works on the piano whenever Elgar and his wife visited the Stuart-Wortleys at their house in Cheyne Walk. This devotion to his music, her artistic talents and their shared love of the countryside strengthened their attachment. Elgar ‘idealised women and the romantic idea of beauty in a Froissart-way, and Alice Stuart-Wortley evoked a strong response from the ‘fey’ side of his nature’ (M. Kennedy, Portrait of Elgar, Oxford, 1982). Given the nickname ‘Windflower’ by Elgar, Carrie went on to inspire Elgar’s 1910 Violin Concerto, referred to as the Windflower themes in letters sent by Elgar whilst he was composing the work, and ‘our own concerto’ in their later correspondence. Kennedy suggests that the Second Symphony of 1911 was also motivated by their friendship – the composer presented Lady Stuart Wortley with all the sketches for it and in a letter to her in 1927 wrote: ‘I have just been playing over your symphony (No. 2) … and most of it sounds divine.’

Carrie inspired and modelled for a number of Millais’ paintings over the years including Sleeping, 1865-6 (Private Collection) and Getting Better (see lot 18 in the present sale).

We are grateful to Dr Malcolm Warner, author of the forthcoming Millais catalogue raisonné, for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.