Sir John Everett Millais (b 8 June 1829, Southampton (Hampshire) - d 13 August 1896 London)     lory is in love with him" - wrote contemporaries about John Everett Millais. Neither English artists was so succeeded during his life, but he. Whether he was in Pre-Raphaelites' rows or drew sentimental genre pictures or representative portraits the crowd followed him. But it was he, who was called "Fallen Angel of Arts", and there is no analogy of this fall in the history of arts.     He was born in Jersey in very careful prosperous family of saddlers (they were distant relatives of Francois Millais). He was handsome and gifted boy. After the brief period at the Henry Sass's private art school, he was accepted into the of Royal Academy Schools, its youngest-ever student (he was 11). In 1846 he made his debut at the Royal Academy exhibition with the history paiting " Pizzaro Seizing the Inca of Peru", London, Victoria & Albert Museum) and won the golden medal in 1847 for the " Tribe of Benjamin Seizing the Daughters of Shiloh" ( London, Private coll.). Being a student he became friendly with his fellow student William Holman Hunt, who in his turn introduced Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1848 they founded the " Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood".     John Everett Millais was the youngest among the three founders, but he was the most skilful painter. Inspired by the Rossetti's poetic fantasies and Hunt's theories Millais put into practice the Pre- Raphaelite's method of painting, reminding frescoes. Millais's first composition with monogram "PRB" was "Isabella" (1849, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery). Following Hunt Millais used the bright colours on the wet white ground, he didn't use professional models and tried to be as close as possible in depicting material world. The painting was accepted rather cold. Only next year when he exhibited "Christ in the House of his Parents" (1850, London Tate Gallery) he was found out on the top of the scandal. Like other "brothers" he was blamed for the naturalism of the holy theme, stiffness of colours and sincerity of feelings. In his next works, "Marianna" (1851, Private coll.), " The Return of the Dove to the Ark" (1851, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum) and " The Woodsman's Daughter" (1851, London, Town Hall), we can't find that unique combination of external details and internal intensive feelings, which advantageously differed his Pre-Raphaelites's manner in the conditions of pathetic salon painting.     For the future academician 1849-1850 were the most complicated years. In 1852 " The Huguenot"(Makins Private coll.) brought him the glory and success. In the same year he created the famous "Ophelia"( London, Tate Gallery), where he tried to make a scene as close to Shakespeare as possible using naturalistic manner. For some time Millais was very close to John Ruskin, who saw in Millais " the second Turner" and patronised him. The summer of 1851 Millais spent in Scotland withRuskin and his wife. The results of their friendship were in appearance of " Portrait of John Ruskin" and Millais marriage to Effy, Ruskin's wife.     In November of 1852 Millais became a member of the Royal Academy against which he contended and to which he hastily entered forgotten all previous divergences. By that time the " Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" was no more existed. Even in "The Woodsman's Daughter" we see the deviation from the dry , "Pre-Raphaelite's" manner of painting. One could note softer colours in Millais's works of that period "The Blind Girl" (1856, Birmingham, City Art Gallery), "Autumn Leaves"(1856, Manchester, City Art Gallery) and "A Dream of the Past - Sir Isumbras at the Ford" (1857, Port Sunlight, Lady Lever Fine Arts Gallery), which were fiercely criticised by Ruskin. In 50s and 60s Millais worked a lot as an illustrator. His first large-scale work was the Tennyson's edition, published by Edward Mokson (1857). He cooperated with the journal "Once a Week" and illustrated the series of Anthony Trollop's novels. At the beginning of 1860s he portrayed a lot of children, The portatraits' sickliness don't remind us about the young Pre-Raphaelite's years. The most famous work of that period is "Bubbles" (1886, London, A.& F.Pears Ltd), where Millais depicted his son, Willy James. By the efforts of well- known soap seller the work was hang on all the fences of the UK. In 1870s and 1880s John Everett Millais created numerous women's portraits in the XVIII style and also the portraits of Thomas Carlyle (1877, London, National Portrait Gallery), Benjamin Disraeli (1881, London, National Portrait Gallery), Alfred Tennyson (1881, Port Sunlight, Lady Lever Fine Arts Gallery), Henry Irving (1883, London, Harrik Club) and many other prominent figures of Victorian England. John Everett Millais was the most highly paid artist for all the UK's history of fine arts. In 1885 he got the title of baron, and a month before his death he became the president of the Royal Academy.