Spring (Apple Blossoms)

Spring (Apple Blossoms), painted in 1859 and now at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, stands as one of Millais's most ambitious outdoor figure compositions and a pivotal work in his gradual movement away from strict Pre-Raphaelite doctrine. A group of young women and girls recline beneath blossoming apple trees, the entire scene bathed in the delicate white and pink of the flowers. The painting was executed in the open air at Annat Lodge, Perthshire, over several seasons, requiring extraordinary patience to capture the short-lived blossoming period. A scythe rests prominently in the foreground — a memento mori inserted into the apparent celebration of youth and spring — signalling that the transient beauty of the season and of youth will pass. The painting was widely discussed at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1859, praised for its luminous naturalism while some critics found the composition deliberately loose and the subject too slight for such a large canvas.

Oil on canvas, large in scale and painted largely outdoors, the picture shows Millais's exceptional command of natural light and the rendering of blossom. The white flowers are achieved through careful scumbling over lighter grounds, and the green turf is built up with layered glazes. The figures are more softly handled than his early Pre-Raphaelite work.