Wandering Thoughts

Wandering Thoughts of 1855, now at Manchester Art Gallery, was painted during a transitional moment in Millais's career, shortly after the intensely detailed work of his early Pre-Raphaelite years. A young woman is shown absorbed in her own reverie, the title announcing a mental state rather than an action. Manchester Art Gallery holds one of the finest collections of Victorian painting in Britain, and a Millais from the mid-1850s represents the period when his extraordinary technical facility was developing beyond the strict Brotherhood constraints. The subject of a woman's wandering mind reflects contemporary interest in female psychology and inner life as subjects worthy of artistic attention. The painting predates the full commercial formula of his later fancy pictures but establishes many of its conventions — the single figure, the introspective gaze, the absence of explicit narrative.

The technique here still shows traces of the Pre-Raphaelite precision of Millais's earlier work: sharper focus in the face and hands, careful description of fabric texture. However, the overall approach is more relaxed than the painstaking elaboration of Ophelia. Oil on canvas, with a warm, enclosed tonal range and careful attention to the sitter's expression.