Millais, along with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. These painters grew in fame in the 1850s, and Millais was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853. By 1863 he had become a full member of the academy, and he was granted a baronetcy in 1885. Such biographical details are reflected in his creation of paintings that gained ready acceptance as he developed all the firmer and more assured technical prowess. In the 1880s Millais was heralded for his portraiture, and his skillful depiction of the human form particularly shone in the depiction of gentle children, in line with the tastes of the Victorian age. The majority of these images of children differ from the depictions of children of his earlier years, which used primary colors and were vividly detailed. Rather they reveal the broadly brushed style learned from Velázquez and others. Frequently the light that shines on these children sets them off from their dark surroundings, creating an all the more impressive impact.
This painting is inscribed with the date 1889, and thus it is thought that this painting was the work exhibited as Ducklings at the Thomas McLean's Gallery that same year. The painting is not meant to depict a specific child, but rather, as indicated by its title, the combination of the ducklings in the foreground and the little girl in midground is thought to make it an allegorical genre scene. Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling had been translated into English and published in England in 1869, and the little girl in the picture, unkempt though she may be, may have been thought to share the same kind of future changes as those told in Andersen's story. Here the little girl's hair is uncombed and her shoes are damaged. She holds something in her hands, possibly a letter, or maybe a handkerchief, that might give some clue to the painting's meaning, but unfortunately it is too indistinctly rendered to be of such help. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 92)
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