Forever Autumn
The famous painting of an autumn scene by John Everett Millais poetically captures a moment of transient beauty
“The first instance of a perfectly painted twilight.” That’s how the influential art critic John Ruskin described Autumn Leaves, painted in 1856 by John Everett Millais. Millais explained it as, “something full of beauty, without subject,” and so it was hailed as an early influence on the Aesthetic movement and a paradigm of art for art’s sake. Of course, the image clearly does have a subject, as well as a poetic narrative, and employs the kind of symbolism the artist was already known for.
Its magical realism captures the last light of early sunset which is around 4 p.m. in the Northern Hemisphere as we approach Winter Solstice. The girls that pile the autumn leaves into a smoking bonfire are set against a beautiful landscape that seems timeless and yet fleeting in its seasonal transition.
Millais was a talented artist and had been accepted to train at London’s Royal Academy in 1840, when he was just 11 years old — the youngest ever, to this day. Autumn Leaves was painted sixteen years later, shortly after he became an Associate of the Royal Academy. It seems to be a poignant celebration of youth and beauty, avoiding the mawkish portrayal of children common in much Victoriana.
