Stella

Stella, painted in 1868 and held at Manchester Art Gallery, takes its title from a celebrated woman's name in literary history: most famously, Jonathan Swift's 'Stella' was Esther Johnson, the woman he loved and wrote for throughout his life, celebrated in his Journal to Stella and other writings. Whether Millais intended a direct literary allusion or used the name for its associations of brightness and feminine distinction is unclear, but the name itself carries intellectual and romantic weight that differentiates this from an anonymous female subject. Manchester Art Gallery has one of the most important collections of Victorian art outside London, reflecting the cultural ambition of a city that was the engine of the Industrial Revolution and saw itself as a rival to London in cultural as well as economic terms.

By 1868 Millais had fully developed the broad, confident handling that distinguished his mature portraits from his Pre-Raphaelite precision. Stella would have been painted with particular attention to the quality that the name implies — a luminous, star-like quality in the face and bearing — achieved through warm, concentrated lighting that isolates the figure against a darker background.