Sir Robert Pullar (1828–1912), MP for Perth (1907–1910)

Sir Robert Pullar (1828–1912) was the proprietor of Pullars of Perth, the celebrated Scottish dyeworks firm that became one of the largest textile businesses in Victorian Britain. His commissioning of a portrait from Millais in 1896 — the year Millais was elected President of the Royal Academy and also the year of his death — places this among the final works the artist completed. Pullar served as MP for Perth from 1907 to 1910, and the Perth Art Gallery holds his portrait in the city where his business empire was based. A portrait by Millais was a mark of exceptional distinction, and Pullar's commission reflects both his personal wealth and his cultural ambitions for his business legacy. The Perth Art Gallery, appropriately, holds this portrait of one of the city's most prominent Victorian industrialists as a document of local commercial and cultural history.

Late Millais portraits from the 1890s demonstrate an increasingly broad and summary handling, consistent with both the painter's great age and experience and the demands of a very full portrait schedule. The face retains the careful likeness that his sitters expected, but the overall surface is more rapidly executed than his earlier portraits. The composition is formally conventional — a dignified older man, appropriate to a prominent businessman and future MP.