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John Everett Millais, 'Peace Concluded', 1856

 


My eye is drawn to the copy of The Times clutched in the hands of the officer. The white of the figurine on the man's knee and the white of his wife's sleeves all serve to make the white paper stand out even more on the canvas. As the title of the painting suggests, this is about the end of the Crimean War, seemingly depicting a soldier who has just returned home, surrounded by his family, but the mood is perhaps less euphoric than you might expect. The soldier seems somber and weary, and his wife has a look of concern. Although on the surface it seems to be quite a harmonious composition representing a close knit and traditional family, the positioning of the man is odd. It is his wife who takes her place at the apex of the triangular composition, the soldier is reduced to an emasculated role, perhaps an invalid, as suggested by the blanket over his legs. Her face is passive, but not exactly positive. With her arms draped around her husband, she looks posed, dutiful but not exactly happy to see him returned safely home. The fact that she is looking directly out at the viewer also highlights her in the painting, and the viewer struggles to hold her gaze. Millais seems to be implying that it is the women who suffer most in warfare - this soldier has returned with no battle wounds or scars, yet the expression on the woman's face suggests that she is suffering. 

Millais was a Pre-Raphaelite painter, and he has included the complex iconography that one would expect from a painting of this time. The toys that the children play with are actually symbols of warfare, representing the nations that were caught in conflict. The colour is rich and deep, from the colourful carpet, to the pattern on the woman's dress, to the medal that the daughter rests on her father's knee - everything rendered with precision and perfection. The inclusion of the medal is also interesting, and links back to the soldier bearing no battle wounds. Millais is perhaps raising the question of whether or not the soldier actually earned that badge of honour. Behind the figures in a large myrtle bush - a symbol of love and marriage, but strangely out of place in a well to do Victorian drawing room. However it is the white of the paper which really stands out, like a flag of surrender. The war might be over but there seems to be little cause for celebration and and even less feeling of peace.

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