Millais showed a prodigious natural facility for drawing, and his parents groomed him from an early age to become an artist. His father was a man of independent means from an old Jersey family. He spent his childhood in Southampton and Brittany, before going to London in 1838.

After a brief period at Henry Sass’s private art school, he was accepted into the Royal Academy Schools in 1840, its youngest-ever student. He won a silver medal there in 1843, made his debut at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1846, and won a gold medal in 1847.

During his attendance at the Royal Academy School he met William Holman Hunt, who became a lifelong friend, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Arthur Hughes. From the meeting of these three youthful idealists the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born.

The first paintings Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy with the other Pre-Raphaelites were initially greeted with vicious critical attacks. It is difficult for us to understand today why these particular works were felt to be so objectionable, but these were depictions of Christ and his family as ordinary people and, of course, this was regarded as very disrespectful. When it emerged that this group were called the Pre-Raphaelites, and that they did not agree with the commonly held view that Raphael was the greatest artist of all time critical attacks were assaulted on them

In the 1890's, Millais' facility to paint that had used for over forty years started to decline. Millais was painfully aware of this situation. In 1892 he suffered from the onset of throat cancer-he had for many years been a constant pipe-smoker. In 1895 he gave an address to the Royal Academy in the absence of Lord Frederick Leighton. He was very hoarse and giving the speech was a considerable ordeal.

John Everett Millais died in 1896 and was considered by many to be one of the best of all the nineteenth century artists.

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