The Knight's Errant

Overall

                This oil painting depicts a typical chivalrous knight helping a damsel in distress. In this almost life sized painting, an armor clad knight is freeing a stripped, defenseless women who was attacked and kidnapped. The knight’s sword is covered in blood and the assumed attacker’s corpse can be seen behind him. The tree the woman is tied to is a Silver birch, which at the time, was identified with the female gender; being referred to as “Lady Birch”.  

About the Artist

                The artist: Sir John Everett, Millais was born June 8^th 1829. He was a child prodigy; he attended Sass's Art School in London and won a silver medal at the Society of Arts at the age of nine.

Reception

Because of the female nudity of the painting, it was given very critical reviews.  A lot of this critic was on Millais’ treatment of the woman.  Critics thought that this was an attempt to idealize nudity and place it in a classical (Greek or Roman) setting. Millais was actually trying emulate an early Victorian style of painting started by artist William Etty. Etty’s was known for his nude paintings but what Millais really admired was the techniques and rich colors Etty used. Stangely enough one of the main critics of the paintings was that the woman was too “life-like”.  “the manner is almost too real for the treatment of the nude” (quoted in Nead p.235 of the June 1870 Art Journal).  Not only that but some questioned the woman’s morals. Because of this as well as the fact that the painting wasn’t selling, Millais cut the head and torso off the painting. He then repainted the woman to be looking way to make her appear more modest. The portion of the painting cut out was reused in another painting a year later. After the revision, the painting was sold in 1874.

How it Connects to empire

The first thing is the controversy that was caused by the nudity of the woman. Due to the more conserved nature of the English more importantly English women, nudity was mostly connected with savages. Although it is made clear in the painting that the woman was nude because she was attacked, critics still questioned and assumed the woman’s morals.

Next is the literal name of the painting.  The Knight’s Errant is the adventure a knight goes on in search of people to help. This can be somewhat connected to how the English “help” other countries such as India. Because the English identify themselves as basically the ‘pinnacle of society’ it is their duty to help others. One of these means of “help” would be the missionaries that went around spreading (forcing) Christianity onto others. Similar to Ms. Clack in the Moonstone

 Work Cited

• Virag, Rebecca. "Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, 'The Knight Errant' 1870." Tate. N.p., Mar. 2001. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
• Riggs, Terry. "Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, 'Ophelia' 1851-2." Tate. N.p., Jan. 1998. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.