Statue dedicated to the artist, John Everett Millais, outside Tate Britain.
Sir John Everett Millais by Sir Thomas Brock, , 1847-1922. 1904. Bronze, on a carved stone pedastel, and plinth. Location: John Islip Street, behind the Tate Gallery, London. Until quite recently, this statue occupied a much more prominent position in front of Tate Britain. It shows the artist standing in front of his stool, with his palette in one hand and a brush in the other. He has a cloth and more brushes by his feet. The stool has a padded top and two small drawers, one with a knob and one with a drop handle, only visible from the rear. It seems a shame that the statue, which nicely demonstrates the "naturalistic rendering" that Brock had learnt in the studio of John Henry Foley, should have been relegated to this spot, where few Tate visitors will come across it. When Millais died in 1896, the Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VII) chaired a memorial committee, which commissioned a statue of the artist.[5] This was installed at the front of the National Gallery of British Art (now Tate Britain) in the garden on the east side in 1905. On 23 November that year, the Pall Mall Gazette called it "a breezy statue, representing the man in the characteristic attitude in which we all knew him". In 1953, Tate Director, Sir Norman Reid, attempted to have it replaced by Auguste Rodin's John the Baptist, and in 1962 again proposed its removal, calling its presence "positively harmful". His efforts were frustrated by the statue's owner, the Ministry of Works. Ownership was transferred from the Ministry to English Heritage in 1996, and by them in turn to the Tate.[ In 2000, under Stephen Deuchar's directorship, the statue was removed to the rear of the building
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: John Islip Street, City of Westminster, London.
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: artist, britain, brock, bronze, everett, islip, john, millais, sculpture, scuptor, sir, statue, street, tate, thomas, westminster
