How does this artwork elucidate its abstract?
Autumn Leaves (1856) is a painting by John Everett Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856. It was described by the critic John Ruskin as "the first instance of a perfectly painted twilight." Millais's wife Effie wrote that he had intended to create a picture that was "full of beauty and without a subject".The picture depicts four girls in the twilight collecting and raking together fallen leaves in a garden, a location now occupied by Rodney Gardens in Perth, Scotland. They are making a bonfire, but the fire itself is invisible, only smoke emerging from between the leaves. The two girls on the left, modelled on Millais's sisters-in-law Alice and Sophie Gray, are portrayed in middle-class clothing of the era; the two on the right are in rougher, working class clothing.
The painting has been seen as one of the earliest influences on the development of the aesthetic movement. A sculpture in Rodney Gardens, known as "Millais Viewpoint", recreates the view through two lower corners of a picture frame, made of stone.
John Everett Millais Effie John Ruskin Royal Academy Sophie Gray Rodney Gardens aesthetic movement Perth, Scotland