domenica 28 settembre 2014

Effie Gray, il film sulla scandalosa vita di lady Millais, ex signora Ruskin







Euphemia Chalmers Millais, Lady Millais née Gray, known as Effie Gray, Effie Ruskin or Effie Millais (1828 – 23 December 1897) was the wife of the critic John Ruskin, but left her husband without the marriage being consummated, and after the annulment of the marriage, married his protégé, the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. This famous Victorian "love triangle" has been dramatised in plays, films and an opera.

Relationship with Ruskin and Millais

Effie Gray, initially known by the pet name of "Phemy", was born in Perth, Scotland, and lived in Bowerswell, the house where Ruskin's grandfather had committed suicide. Her family knew Ruskin's father, who encouraged a match between them. Ruskin wrote the fantasy novel The King of the Golden River for her in 1841, when she was twelve years old. After their marriage in 1848,[1] they travelled to Venice where Ruskin was researching his book The Stones of Venice. Their different personalities are thrown into sharp relief by their contrasting priorities. For Effie, Venice provided an opportunity to socialise, while Ruskin was engaged in solitary studies. In particular, he made a point of drawing the Ca' d'Oro and the Doge’s Palace, or Palazzo Ducale, because he feared they would be destroyed by the occupying Austrian troops. One of these troops, Lieutenant Charles Paulizza, made friends with Effie, apparently with no objection from Ruskin. Her brother, among others, later claimed that Ruskin was deliberately encouraging the friendship to compromise her, as an excuse to separate.

Effie Gray painted by Thomas Richmond. She thought the portrait made her look like "a graceful Doll".[2]
When she met Millais five years later, she was still a virgin, as Ruskin had persistently put off consummating the marriage. His reasons are unclear, but they involved disgust with some aspect of her body. As she later wrote to her father,
"He alleged various reasons, hatred to children, religious motives, a desire to preserve my beauty, and, finally this last year he told me his true reason... that he had imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and that the reason he did not make me his Wife was because he was disgusted with my person the first evening 10th April."
Ruskin confirmed this in his statement to his lawyer during the annulment proceedings: "It may be thought strange that I could abstain from a woman who to most people was so attractive. But though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it."[3] The reason for Ruskin's disgust with "circumstances in her person" is unknown. Various suggestions have been made, including revulsion at either her pubic hair,[4] or menstrual blood.[5]
While married to Ruskin, she modelled for Millais' painting The Order of Release, in which she was depicted as the loyal wife of a Scottish rebel who has secured his release from prison. She then became close to Millais when he accompanied the couple on a trip to Scotland in order to paint Ruskin's portrait according to the critic's artistic principles. During this time, spent in Brig o' Turk in the Trossachs, they fell in love. She left Ruskin and, with the support of her family and a number of influential friends, filed for an annulment, causing a major public scandal; their marriage was annulled in 1854. In 1855, she married John Millais and eventually bore him eight children: Everett, born in 1856; George, born in 1857; Effie, born in 1858; Mary, born in 1860; Alice, born in 1862; Geoffroy, born in 1863; John in 1865; and Sophie in 1868. Their youngest son John Guille Millais was a notable bird artist and gardener. She also modelled for a number of her husband's works, notably Peace Concluded (1856), which idealises her as an icon of beauty and fertility.
When Ruskin later sought to become engaged to a teenage girl, Rose La Touche, Rose's parents were concerned. They wrote to Gray to ask about the marriage; she replied by describing Ruskin as an oppressive husband. The engagement was broken off.

Influence on Millais


Gray in middle age, painted by Millais. She is holding a copy of theCornhill Magazine.
After his marriage, Millais began to paint in a broader style, which Ruskin condemned as a "catastrophe". Marriage had given him a large family to support, and it is claimed[who?] that his wife encouraged him to churn out popular works for financial gain and to maintain her busy social life. However, there is no evidence that she consciously pressured him to do so, though she was an effective manager of his career and often collaborated with him in choosing subjects. Her journal indicates her high regard for her husband's art, and his works are still recognisably Pre-Raphaelite in style several years after his marriage.
However, Millais eventually abandoned the Pre-Raphaelite obsession with detail and began to paint in a looser style which produced more paintings for the time and effort. Many were inspired by his family life with his wife, often using his children and grandchildren as models. Millais also used his sister-in-law, Sophy Gray, then in her early teens, as the basis of some striking images in the mid to late 1850s, provoking suggestions of a mutual infatuation.[6]

Later life

The annulment from Ruskin barred her from some social functions. She was not allowed in the presence of Queen Victoria, precluding invitations to events at which the Queen was present. Prior to the annulment, she had been socially very active and this bothered both her and her husband considerably, although many in society were still prepared to receive her and to press her case sympathetically.[7] Eventually, when Millais was dying, the Queen relented through the intervention of her daughter Princess Louise, allowing Gray to attend an official function. Sixteen months after Millais' death, Effie died at Bowerswell on 23 December 1897[8] and was buried in Kinnoull churchyard, Perth, which is depicted in Millais's painting The Vale of Rest.

In drama and literature


The Love of John Ruskin (1912) a silent movie about Ruskin, Gray and Millais.Her marriage to Ruskin and subsequent romance with Millais have been dramatised on many occasions:

References

  1. Jump up^ James, William Milbourne, ed. (1948). The Order of Release: The Story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais Told for the First Time in their Unpublished Letters. University of Michigan: J. Murray. p. 1.
  2. Jump up^ Euphemia ('Effie') Chalmers (née Gray), Lady Millais, National Portrait Gallery
  3. Jump up^ Lutyens, M., Millais and the Ruskins, p.191
  4. Jump up^ Phyllis Rose (1983) Parallel Lives; Franny Moyle (2009) Desperate Romantics
  5. Jump up^ Peter Fuller, Theoria: Art and the Absence of Grace, Chatto & Windus, 1988, pp.11-12; Suzanne Fagence Cooper (2010) The Model Wife: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais
  6. Jump up^ Suzanne Fagence Cooper (2010) The Model Wife: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais
  7. Jump up^ Suzanne Fagence Cooper (2010) The Model Wife: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais
  8. Jump up^ James, W. (2008). The Order of Release - The Story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millias. Read. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-4437-0293-5. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
  9. Jump up^ Dakota Fanning and Emma Thompson Team for 1850s Victorian Drama "Effie"


    Effie Gray is a British biographical film directed by Richard Laxton and scheduled for release in 2014. Its subject is the love triangle involving Victorian art critic John Ruskin (played byGreg Wise), his wife, Euphemia "Effie" Gray (Dakota Fanning), and Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais (Tom Sturridge). The script was written by Emma Thompson, who also appears in the film as Lady Eastlake. The film is set in Venice and London.

    Plot

    Born in Scotland, Effie married Victorian art critic and historian John Ruskin when she was 19 years old and he was 29. Shortly after they married, Effie followed John to Venice, where he was working on his book The Stones of Venice. There, John was busy studying the many historic monuments of the city, and left Effie alone. Thus Effie spent her time between the busy streets of Venice and the frequent balls.

    While visiting Scotland with her husband and his protegee the artist John Everett Millais, Effie and Millais fell in love. Though five years had passed since she married, John still had not consummated the marriage. Ultimately Effie sought and won in court the annulment of her marriage and she married John Millais. During the trial, Effie said her husband was impotent, while he argued that Effie's body had some disgusting feature.[1]

    Copyright claims

    Release of the film, originally titled Effie, was delayed by a series of court actions for breach of copyright. Eve Pomerance, author of two scripts on the same subject as Thompson's screenplay, brought the first case. One of the scripts had been produced as a play. The judge ruled in December 2012 that Thompson's script was not in breach of copyright and could be released.[2] Another copyright dispute, with playwright Gregory Murphy, also the author of a play and screenplay on the same topic,[3] was decided in Emma Thompson's favour in March 2013.[4][5] Gregory Murphy appealed the ruling.[5][6] The lawsuits have led to repeated delays of the release of the completed film. The release date was first put back to October 2013, but the film was withdrawn from the Mill Valley Film Festival in California at which it was to be premiered under the title Effie Gray. Murphy stated that the legal battle was "ongoing".[7]The film is now due to be shown in October 2014.[8]

    Principal cast

    References

    1. Jump up^ www.filmdates on Effie Gray
    2. Jump up^ Effie Film, LLC v. Eve Pomerance, No. 11-CIV-7087 (JPO) (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 18, 2012) (248 KB PDF, accessed 17 January 2013)
    3. Jump up^ Murphy, Gregory April 23, 2011 (23 April 2011). "The day I sat in Emma Thompson's kitchen and accused her of stealing my movie". Daily Mail (London).
    4. Jump up^ Eden, Richard (23 December 2012). "Emma Thompson is kept waiting by John Ruskin film". The Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group). Retrieved 14 January 2013.
    5. ^ Jump up to:a b Eden, Richard (24 March 2013). "Emma Thompson wins John Ruskin legal battle". The Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group). Retrieved 26 April 2013.
    6. Jump up^ Walker, Tim (September 2, 2013). "John Ruskin legal battle goes on for Emma Thompson". The Telegraph (London).
    7. Jump up^ Emma Thompson's film about Effie Gray is withdrawn from film festival, Daily Telegraph, 15 Oct 2013
    8. Jump up^ Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times Saturday Review, 23 August 2014

    External links

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