ABSTRACT
In the 1850s Millais's popularity was somewhat revived by a series of narrative paintings, including A Huguenot (1852), Ophelia (1852), and The Order of Release (1853). At this point in his career, Millais became the protege of critic John Ruskin, who had recently taken up the Pre-Raphaelite cause. During a vacation in Scotland, Millais and Ruskin's wife Effie fell in love and, after a scandalous divorce, they were married in 1855 and settled in Perth. Alienation from Ruskin and the need to make more money for his fast-growing family caused Millais to give up the meticulous Pre-Raphaelite method of painting. Later in the 1850s he turned to a more commercial style, although he painted a few more Pre-Raphaelite canvases: Autumn Leaves (1856), The Blind Girl (1856), Sir Isumbras (1857), and The Vale of Rest (1859), his last truly Pre-Raphaelite work. During the next decades Millais created popular paintings of lovers like The Black Brunswicker (1860), and cute children, as in A Child's World (1885), which came to be known as "Bubbles" after it was bought by Pears Ltd. as a soap advertisement.
