'Ferdinand Lured by Ariel', John Everett Millais

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This is an unusual acquisition for George Holt, who tended to prefer works of high finish to sketches. The subject is from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’: the magical sprite Ariel, servant to Prospero, leads the shipwrecked Ferdinand to his master. Ariel holds a seashell and is carried through the air by weird spirits playing music.

This is a study for a much more finished painting, shown at the Royal Academy in 1850, in which the light and fluid treatment of Millais|'s sketch was replaced by minutely depicted Pre-Raphaelite| detail.