The Nest

The Nest, painted in 1887, depicts a subject of domestic natural history that Millais used to combine his interest in children with his feeling for the natural world. A child finding a bird's nest — and the nest's implication of spring, new life, fragility, and natural wonder — was a subject with deep roots in both Dutch genre painting and the English tradition of natural history illustration, and its Victorian popularity was enhanced by the period's intense interest in the observation of nature. Millais was himself an enthusiastic naturalist, spending his summer months at Scottish estates where he observed wildlife at first hand. The Lady Lever Art Gallery holds this work alongside other Millais domestic and natural subjects, and it was acquired by William Lever as an example of the accessible, warmly observed Victorian subject painting he collected with enthusiasm.

The painting juxtaposes the child's face — warm, engaged, delighted — with the precise natural detail of the nest and its eggs or young birds. Millais renders the nest's construction with the careful observation he brought to natural subjects, while the child's skin and hair receive his characteristic luminous treatment. The colour is warm and domestic, evoking the pleasure of the discovery.