Childhood

‘An Idyll of 1745’ 1884

JE Millais (1829 – 1896)

Oil on canvas, 140 x 191cm

This picture puts forward the idea that children, in their innocence, can look beyond the sectarian or cultural barriers that divide people.

In 1745 the Duke of Cumberland was engaged in a violent campaign of execution, imprisonment and starvation against the Scottish Jacobites. This was in retaliation for Charles Edward Stuart’s unsuccessful attempt to reclaim the British throne. Scottish chiefs and clansmen had helped Stuart, so the English were punishing them as well.

This painting shows three Scottish peasant girls listening intently to the piping of a drummer-boy from Cumberland’s army. That children from opposing sides of a bloody conflict can come together peacefully is meant to be an improving message for all adults. Even as the marauding English army camps in the distance, the children have put aside the differences of the adults and are enjoying a quiet moment of friendship and solidarity.

Such idealised views of children as paragons of innocence, truth and morality were common in Victorian art. However, it could be argued that for Millais to have created a sentimental costume piece from the horrors of Cumberland’s campaign showed an insensitive attitude to Scottish history.

This painting is currently on display at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

In this section

• the next item in this section is: 'Childhood, Head of a Girl' by W Goscombe John
• Childhood online exhibition main page
• Sir John Everett Millais online feature

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