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165:(1876). The right side of the painting originally depicted two of the sailor's grandchildren, who were modelled by John and Alice Millais, two of Millais's own children. They were shown looking at a globe of the world. But after Millais completed the painting, he became unhappy with the figures of the children, thinking that they distracted the eye from the main figure. He cut out this section of the painting and replaced it with a screen, over which British naval flags are hung.
132:, which had disappeared, apparently without trace. Subsequent expeditions had found evidence that Franklin's two ships had become stuck in ice, and that the crews had died over a number of years from various causes, some having made unsuccessful attempts to escape across the ice. These later expeditions were also unable to navigate a route through Canada’s arctic islands. Millais had the idea for the painting when a new expedition to explore the passage, the
195:, he complained to his friends in the Albany Club that "that fellow Millais has handed me down to posterity with a glass of rum-and-water in one hand and a lemon in the other". However, he eventually decided that Millais's Scottish wife Effie was probably to blame because "the Scotch are a nation of sots".
294:, which emphasises the pathos and impotence of its characters. The relationship between the main characters, Captain Shotover and Ellie Dunn, was based on the figures in the painting, and one scene partially reproduces the composition. In his last completed play,
105:. It depicts an elderly sailor sitting at a desk, with his daughter seated in a stool beside him. He stares out at the viewer, while she reads from a log-book. On the desk is a large chart depicting complex passageways between incompletely charted arctic islands.
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and printed in 1854. Millais may have intended to suggest that the old man was a veteran of one of McClure's expeditions. The painting in the background depicting an ice-trapped ship (partly hidden by the flag) resembles images of McClure's ship
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The painting was hugely successful at the time, and was very widely circulated in reproductions. Millais's son says he once saw a reproduction in "the hut of a
Hottentot shepherd" in South Africa. Along with Millais's earlier painting
116:, a navigable passageway around the north of the American continent. These expeditions "became synonymous with failure, adversity and death, with men and ships battling against hopeless odds in a frozen wilderness."
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persuaded
Trelawny to sit for the picture by agreeing to attend a Turkish bath he was promoting at the time. The female figure was a professional model, Mrs Ellis, who was later used in another painting,
219:. When Tate bought the painting for 4,000 guineas there was apparently a "huge cheer" because it meant that it would form part of the national collection which Tate was planning.
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in 1874, at which it was highly praised by the art critics of the day. It was then shown at the
International Exhibition in Paris in 1876. The painting was acquired by
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When he saw the painting at the Royal
Academy exhibition, Trelawny, who was teetotal, was outraged by the fact that Millais had included a glass of
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112:", a line imagined to be spoken by the aged sailor. The title and subtitle refer to the repeated failure of British expeditions to find the
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in 1888, who subsequently donated it to the
National Gallery of British Art he had founded, later named after him as the
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entitled "The
Dardanelles Passage" was captioned "it might be done and England and France can do it", referring to the
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was inspired by the doleful imagery of failure and frustration in the work when he came to write his play
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portraying
Disraeli as the old sailor and Britannia in the position of his daughter. A 1915 cartoon by
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as the model for the figure of his old sailor. He had met him at the funeral of their mutual friend
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Albert Perry as
Shotover and Elizabeth Risdon as Ellie Dunn in the original 1920 production of
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The chart depicted in the painting is of the northern coast of Canada, as mapped during the
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in which he said that the painting had had a powerful effect on the spirit of the nation.
184:, which was abandoned by McClure and his crew in 1853 after three years of being trapped.
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The search for the northwest passage had been undertaken repeatedly since the voyages of
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in the early 17th century. The most significant attempt was the 1845 expedition led by
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of Marton Hall, Middlesbrough for £4,930, from whose estate it was later bought by
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176.5 cm × 222.2 cm (69.5 in × 87.5 in)
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The painting was quickly referenced in cartoons. In
October 1874
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it came to symbolise
Britain's self-image as a nation of heroic
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James, Ian, "'The North-West Passage' by Sir John Millais",
300:, Shaw depicts the same scene mimicking Millais's painting.
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444:, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989, p. 34.
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108:Millais exhibited the painting with the subtitle "
386:The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais
373:The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais
442:Bernard Shaw on the London art scene, 1885–1950
249:. Millais received a letter from the explorer
631:A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford
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172:expeditions of 1848–53. It was designed by
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282:replaced the old sailor and his daughter.
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332:Tate Gallery, The North-West Passage 1874
310:List of paintings by John Everett Millais
110:It might be done and England should do it
401:, Hutchinson & Company, 1940, p. 42.
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191:and a lemon. According to Millais's son
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559:A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day
203:The painting was first shown at the
355:, January 1986; 23 (142), pp. 81-4.
527:Christ in the House of His Parents
21:Northwest Passage (disambiguation)
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802:Paintings by John Everett Millais
551:The Return of the Dove to the Ark
457:, Penn State Press, 1993, p. 119.
274:, which was then just beginning.
817:Collection of the Tate galleries
397:Albert Charles Robinson Carter,
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16:Painting by John Everet Millais
416:Punch, or the London Charivari
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583:The Proscribed Royalist, 1651
427:"The Dardanelles Passage",
410:Tenniel, John, engraved by
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575:The Order of Release, 1746
455:Shaw and Other Playwrights
268:Joseph Morewood Staniforth
174:Edward Augustus Inglefield
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199:Exhibition and provenance
134:British Arctic Expedition
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535:Ferdinand Lured by Ariel
453:John Anthony Bertolini,
262:published a pastiche by
148:Millais was keen to use
101:is an 1874 painting by
695:The North-West Passage
671:The Boyhood of Raleigh
384:Millais, John Guille,
371:Millais, John Guille,
242:The Boyhood of Raleigh
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163:Stitch, Stitch, Stitch
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98:The North-West Passage
31:The North-West Passage
647:The Black Brunswicker
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205:Royal Academy of Arts
495:John Everett Millais
150:Edward John Trelawny
103:John Everett Millais
49:John Everett Millais
19:For other uses, see
771:Desperate Romantics
743:John Guille Millais
440:Stanley Weintraub,
431:, 27 February 1915.
418:, December 5, 1874.
286:George Bernard Shaw
193:John Guille Millais
711:The Ruling Passion
375:, 1898, pp. 48–55.
297:Shakes versus Shav
272:Gallipoli campaign
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504:List of paintings
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114:Northwest Passage
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827:Maps in art
782:(2014 film)
766:(1999 play)
642:(1858–1859)
594:(1853–1854)
591:John Ruskin
586:(1852–1853)
578:(1852–1853)
570:(1851–1852)
530:(1849–1850)
522:(1848–1849)
796:Categories
779:Effie Gray
737:Effie Gray
599:The Rescue
316:References
213:Henry Tate
158:Effie Gray
154:John Leech
120:Background
73:Dimensions
511:Paintings
276:John Bull
247:explorers
223:Influence
519:Isabella
304:See also
280:Marianne
144:Creation
81:Location
730:Related
719:Bubbles
663:Vanessa
567:Ophelia
543:Mariana
136:led by
739:(wife)
722:(1886)
714:(1885)
706:(1877)
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682:(1870)
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89:London
63:Medium
45:Artist
745:(son)
259:Punch
278:and
189:grog
179:HMS
58:1874
55:Year
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360:^
338:^
324:^
87:,
487:e
480:t
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