The Minuet

The Minuet, painted in 1866 on a mahogany panel, depicts figures performing the elegant eighteenth-century dance that had been associated with aristocratic grace and courtly culture since its development in the court of Louis XIV. By 1866 the minuet had been obsolete as a social dance for over half a century, displaced by the waltz and other Romantic forms, and Millais's choice of the subject was nostalgic — a vision of an earlier era of mannered elegance. The Hamburger Kunsthalle's acquisition of this work reflects the strong German collecting interest in Victorian British art that developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, when British painting was respected across Europe. The use of mahogany rather than canvas gives the work a distinctive material character — wood panels were associated with the Old Masters, and Millais's choice may carry deliberate archaising intent, aligning his costume piece with the tradition of Dutch and Flemish cabinet painting.

The mahogany panel support creates a warm, reddish tone that permeates the work even where paint coverage is thickest. Millais uses this to advantage, letting the wood's colour contribute to the warm atmosphere of candlelit interior suggested by the dance subject. The figures are rendered with the fluid confidence of his mature style, their period costume carefully researched.