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The Woodsman's Daughter

Millais depicts a scene from a poem written by his friend, Coventry Patmore, in 1844. Patmore was admired by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (of which Millais was a founding member) due to his style which mirrored their intense descriptiveness. Patmore’s poem tells of two children - the low-rank woodman’s daughter, Maud, and the wealthy squire’s son - beginning a secret friendship that would ultimately lead to prohibited love, an illegitimate child, and tragedy. Maud eventually drowns her child and is driven mad by grief. The tale’s tragic end is hinted at by the bird feathers at the young boy’s feet and the felled tree next to the woodman.

The woodland scenery was painted in Wytham Wood near O...

1850-1851
Oil on canvas

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