The Woodsman's Daughter

Millais depicts a scene from a poem written by his friend, Coventry Patmore, in 1844. Patmore was admired by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (of which Millais was a founding member) due to his style which mirrored their intense descriptiveness. Patmore’s poem tells of two children - the low-rank woodman’s daughter, Maud, and the wealthy squire’s son - beginning a secret friendship that would ultimately lead to prohibited love, an illegitimate child, and tragedy. Maud eventually drowns her child and is driven mad by grief. The tale’s tragic end is hinted at by the bird feathers at the young boy’s feet and the felled tree next to the woodman.

The woodland scenery was painted in Wytham Wood near Oxford in the Summer of 1850 and was completed with unflinching realism. The children were added in the winter in Millais’ London studio, modelled on (now unknown) professionals. Some argue, however, that the boy’s stiff pose suggests he was painted from a dummy or mannequin of sorts. Millais’ letters show that he painted the girl’s clothing from a worn pair of boots and pinafore belonging to a child living near Wytham Wood. He arranged for them to be sent to his studio and gave her mother the money to replace them. His insistence that they must have been worn speaks to the significance he accorded authenticity. This significance supports the Pre-Raphaelite value of painting to the highest possible degree of accuracy. Millais believed this painting to be, of all of his works, the most representative of this Pre-Raphaelite approach. The strawberries offered to Maud were bought in Covent Garden Market in March 1851 - they were out of season and would have been very expensive.

Despite Millais’ excellent reputation, The Woodman’s Daughter failed to sell when first exhibited by the Royal Academy. This is supposedly due to the depiction of Maud whom even Patmore described as appearing vulgar. Since women were considered the moral arbiters of Victorian society, this would have been particularly disconcerting to a contemporary viewer. The painting was eventually bought by Millais’ half-brother, Henry Hodgkinson, who (ahead of The Grosvenor Gallery’s 1886 exhibition) had the artist rework the painting. Millais did so, as evidenced by the visible discolouration around the girl’s head and feet. This discolouration occurred over time and would not have been seen by Millais, himself. These alterations explain the contrast between the detailed painting of the boy and the less precise treatment of the girl’s clothing and face.