The Proscribed Royalist, 1651

This Proscribed Royalist, 1651, depicts a Cavalier hiding in a tree trunk during the English Civil War, aided by a sympathetic young Puritan woman who brings him food despite the political danger. The subject combined historical romance with the Victorian taste for period costume pictures—the Cavalier tradition's glamour versus Puritan severity, the lovers separated by political allegiance. Painted in Millais's mature period after his Pre-Raphaelite phase had softened into a more painterly style, the work demonstrates his evolution from the hard-edged, jewel-like surface of his early Pre-Raphaelitism toward a warmer, looser handling suited to sentimental historical narrative. The work was highly successful with Victorian collectors.

The woodland setting is rendered with Pre-Raphaelite precision, every leaf and branch painted from direct observation, while the human drama of the fugitive and his rescuer creates emotional tension within the meticulously rendered natural environment.