First and Second Sermons - John Everett Millais

[My First Sermon] 1863
oil on canvas
Guildhall Art Gallery




[My Second Sermon] 1864
oil on canvas
Guildhall Art Gallery

The model was Millais’ five year old daughter Effie and she is sitting in one of the old high-backed pews in All Saints Church, Kingston-on-Thames, which Millais hurried to paint in December 1862 shortly before they were removed.

After the success of My First Sermon at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1863, Millais painted a companion showing the same little girl - his daughter Effie - after the novelty has worn off. In his speech at the next Royal Academy Banquet, the Archbishop of Canterbury claimed it as a warning against ‘the evil of lengthy sermons and drowsy discourses’.

http://www.artunframed.com/millais.htm