Autumn Leaves (painting)
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. 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 Millias' sisters-in-law Alice and Sophy 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.
Read more about Autumn Leaves (painting): Interpretations
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