Millais painting off to Tate Modern exhibition

This painting from the Bolton Museum collection is to feature in an exhibition designed to reappraise the work of this sometimes controversial artist.

Millais is associated with both the commercial and the fine art world. His most lucrative work was a well known advertising image for Pears soap that is still used to this day. He is also known for his provocative paintings that tended to lend his female subjects a sexual charge that was considered scandalous in its day. Romanticism and Victorian values were uncomfortable bedfellows.

Millais was a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a movement that sought to move away from Renaissance values. The new exhibition presents the case that Millais’ paintings had a far more serious influence on subsequent art movements than is usually acknowledged.

In preparation for the show “The Somnambulist” was taken down last week and transported by the Tate’s specialist carriers in a purpose built case.

"Millais" will also travel to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam from 15 February to 18 May 2008, and two venues in Japan: Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art from 7 June to 17 August 2008, and The Bunkamura Museum of Art, 30 August to 26 October 2008.

More Information

The painting is part of the permanent art gallery display at Bolton so will be replaced by two temporary exhibits until it returns in November 2008.

More information about the Somnambulist

Look at Future Exhibitions in Tate Modern's Exhibition section