The Wedding Cards

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The Wedding Cards
John Everett Millais - The Wedding Cards.jpg
Artist John Everett Millais
Year1854
Type Oil on panel
Dimensions22.2 cm× 16.5 cm(8.7 in× 6.5 in)
LocationPrivate collection

The Wedding Cards or Wedding Cards: Jilted is an 1854 oil painting by the English artist John Everett Millais. It shows a woman holding a card in one hand and the envelope in the other, which she rests against her chest. It is a small, intimate painting of a woman against a dark background, like many of the paintings Millais produced in 1854.

Contents

The painting

The painting references the Victorian habit of newly-wed couples sending out "wedding cards", to announce that they were "at home" to receive congratulatory visits from friends. [1] Christopher Newall writes of the pose: "...her ringless left hand symbolically clasped to her heart, together with her sad expression, suggest all is not well." [1]

The painting was first exhibited at the Liverpool Academy of Arts in 1854. It was bought by John Miller, a Liverpool-based Scottish collector of Pre-Raphaelite works, and in 1857 Miller lent it to the exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art in Russell Place in London. [1] In 1858 The Wedding Cards was included in the sale of Miller's art collection. [1] In 1862 it was included in a sale of the collection of Thomas Plint, who had died the year before, where it sold for 120 guineas. [2]

The picture has changed hands at least eleven times since it was painted. London West End art dealer Thomas Agnew & Sons has bought the painting four times: twice in the 1800s and twice in the 1900s. [3]

The painting was sold by Christie's on 6 June 1958 for 280 guineas. [3] It was sold again by Christie's in London on 5 June 2008 (Lot 47), [4] on behalf of the estate of Lord Blackford (Keith Alexander Henry Mason, 3rd Baron Blackford), who died in April 1977. [3] It is now in a private collection.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Newall, Christopher; Bukantas, Ann (2016). Pre-Raphaelites: Beauty and Rebellion. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool: National Museums Liverpool and Liverpool University Press. ISBN   978-1-78138-303-2 . Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  2. ↑ Roberts, William (1897). Memorials of Christie's: A Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1896, Volume 1. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 197. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 "Millais painting set to reach £500k at auction". Southern Daily Echo. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  4. ↑ "Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Colin and Lady Anderson. Sir John Everett Millais, P.R.A. (1829-1896). The Violet's Message". London: Christie's . Retrieved 14 December 2025.
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