William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898)

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) sat to Millais for this portrait in 1885, when the Liberal prime minister was at the height of his political fame and controversy. Gladstone had already served three terms as Prime Minister and was engaged in the consuming struggle over Irish Home Rule that would define the final phase of his career. Millais's portrait of Gladstone is among several made by different artists during his long public life, and the choice of Millais — the most celebrated and commercially successful painter in Britain — reflects the seriousness of the commission. The Christ Church Picture Gallery at Oxford holds this portrait; Gladstone was himself a Christ Church man, having studied classics there in the 1820s, and the college's acquisition of the portrait reflects its institutional pride in one of its most distinguished alumni. Millais was a Conservative in politics but served Liberal and Conservative patrons with equal professionalism.

Millais places Gladstone in a three-quarter format that was his standard approach for prominent political and public figures. The face is studied with great intensity — every line and characteristic of the aged statesman's features is recorded without flattery. The eyes, described by contemporaries as the most compelling feature of Gladstone's presence, receive particular attention. The paint handling in the face is tighter than Millais's usual late manner, appropriate to the gravity of the subject.