Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere
John Guille Millais reported in his 1899 biography of his famous father, John Everett Millais, that The North-West Passage (1874) was “perhaps the most popular of all Millais’ paintings at the time”. The picture’s adoptive subtitle—“It might be done, and England should to do it”, purportedly uttered...
Published in: | British Art Studies |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Yale University
2021
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham https://doaj.org/article/06f70a6b20f44469a6896c09b770ff9a |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:06f70a6b20f44469a6896c09b770ff9a 2023-05-15T14:37:43+02:00 Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere Mark A. Cheetham 2021-02-01 https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham https://doaj.org/article/06f70a6b20f44469a6896c09b770ff9a en eng Yale University doi:10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham 2058-5462 https://doaj.org/article/06f70a6b20f44469a6896c09b770ff9a undefined British Art Studies, Iss 19 (2021) royal academy of arts john everett millais john guille millais arctic isaac julien anthropomorphism art litt Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2021 fttriple https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham 2023-01-22T17:45:06Z John Guille Millais reported in his 1899 biography of his famous father, John Everett Millais, that The North-West Passage (1874) was “perhaps the most popular of all Millais’ paintings at the time”. The picture’s adoptive subtitle—“It might be done, and England should to do it”, purportedly uttered by the aged sailor in the painting—captured the patriotic zeal for the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876, rather than the past glories (and tragedies) of the British quest to traverse the Northwest Passage. “It” in this motto looks ahead to the planting of the British flag at the North Pole and to the treatment of the Arctic in contemporary art. Looking closely at this complex painting and its surrounding discourses in the Victorian period and in related works from our own time, I argue that The North-West Passage was and remains a “metapicture” that distilled speculation on Arctic voyaging from the Anglosphere in the 1870s and does so again today. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic North Pole North West Passage Northwest passage Unknown Arctic North Pole Northwest Passage British Art Studies 19 |
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Open Polar |
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fttriple |
language |
English |
topic |
royal academy of arts john everett millais john guille millais arctic isaac julien anthropomorphism art litt |
spellingShingle |
royal academy of arts john everett millais john guille millais arctic isaac julien anthropomorphism art litt Mark A. Cheetham Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere |
topic_facet |
royal academy of arts john everett millais john guille millais arctic isaac julien anthropomorphism art litt |
description |
John Guille Millais reported in his 1899 biography of his famous father, John Everett Millais, that The North-West Passage (1874) was “perhaps the most popular of all Millais’ paintings at the time”. The picture’s adoptive subtitle—“It might be done, and England should to do it”, purportedly uttered by the aged sailor in the painting—captured the patriotic zeal for the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876, rather than the past glories (and tragedies) of the British quest to traverse the Northwest Passage. “It” in this motto looks ahead to the planting of the British flag at the North Pole and to the treatment of the Arctic in contemporary art. Looking closely at this complex painting and its surrounding discourses in the Victorian period and in related works from our own time, I argue that The North-West Passage was and remains a “metapicture” that distilled speculation on Arctic voyaging from the Anglosphere in the 1870s and does so again today. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mark A. Cheetham |
author_facet |
Mark A. Cheetham |
author_sort |
Mark A. Cheetham |
title |
Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere |
title_short |
Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere |
title_full |
Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere |
title_fullStr |
Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere |
title_full_unstemmed |
Millais’ Metapicture: “The North-West Passage” as Distillate of Arctic Voyaging from the Anglosphere |
title_sort |
millais’ metapicture: “the north-west passage” as distillate of arctic voyaging from the anglosphere |
publisher |
Yale University |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham https://doaj.org/article/06f70a6b20f44469a6896c09b770ff9a |
geographic |
Arctic North Pole Northwest Passage |
geographic_facet |
Arctic North Pole Northwest Passage |
genre |
Arctic North Pole North West Passage Northwest passage |
genre_facet |
Arctic North Pole North West Passage Northwest passage |
op_source |
British Art Studies, Iss 19 (2021) |
op_relation |
doi:10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham 2058-5462 https://doaj.org/article/06f70a6b20f44469a6896c09b770ff9a |
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undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/mcheetham |
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British Art Studies |
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19 |
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