Focus on this artwork and explain the Creation and reception.
The artwork took an estimated three months to paint. Millais is reported to have paid particularly close attention to the correctness of the Brunswicker's uniform. Kate Perugini, the daughter of Charles Dickens, was used as a model for the woman seen in the picture. The male model was an anonymous soldier who died shortly afterwards. The two models never actually met. Millais' son says that they both posed with wooden props. He "clasped a lay-figure to his breast, while the fair lady leant on the bosom of a man of wood."It was also bought for the highest price Millais had ever received from dealer and publisher Ernest Gambart—100 guineas (£105). He sold it on to the well-known Pre-Raphaelite collector Thomas Plint. Later, in 1898, William Hesketh Lever purchased the work for his private collection.The painting followed a period of relative lack of success for Millais, and its similarity to A Huguenot is widely interpreted as an attempt to repeat his earlier success. It was engraved in mezzotint by T.L. Atkinson in 1864. Millais also painted two watercolour copies of the composition.
Kate Perugini A Huguenot Charles Dickens Thomas Plint William Hesketh Lever Ernest Gambart guineas mezzotint