On the Original Illustrations of Trollope's Fiction

Orley Farm

Written 1860 (4 July) - 1861 (22 June)
Serialized 1861 (March) - 1862 (October), Monthly Shilling Parts
40 Full-Page Illustrations by John Everett Millais
Published as a book 1861 (Volume I, December), 1862 (Volume II, September),
Chapman and Hall

There is an 1862 Oil Painting, Trust Me, colour reproduction and discussion in Russell Ashe, Sir John Everett Millais, Plate 23.

It appears that this is another scene which Millais has himself fully imagined from Trollope's text for which there are only hints or implications in the novel; the painting was exhibited after the part issue of Orley Farm.

The interested reader will find 23 of the original set in somewhat different sizes. They come from different sources. I have resolves a couple a little larger and more clearly than the others so that the viewer may study the dark phases of the pictures. I followed these by some excerpts from chapter 6 of my book (a study of the original illustrations on Trollope's novels).

    Volume I

  1. 'Orley Farm'. Source: 1981 Dover reprint of 1862 Chapman and Hall 2 volume edition of Orley Farm, frontispiece facing title page; also reprinted in many other books because it is an actual drawing by Millais of the Julians Hill farmhouse in which the Trollope family lived while Trollope was growing up, e.g., Snow, p. 34. Reprinted and discussed, together with a photograph of the place in Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 50-54.

    J. E. Millais, "Orley Farm"," frontispiece, Orley Farm

  2. 'Sir Peregrine and His Heir'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 16. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 40-41. The eyes are so sad, so melancholy; whole thing partakes of gravity of idyllic Pre-Raphaelite style.

    J. E. Millais, "Sir Peregrine and His Heir," Orley Farm

  3. 'There was sorrow in her heart, and deep thought in her mind'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 36. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 27-29; Moody, Trollope on the Net, Chapter 6. Trollope said he saw more deeply into his text after seeing this drawing.

    J. E. Millais, Lady Mason", "There was sorrow in her Heart, and deep Thought in her mind," Orley Farm

  4. '"There is nothing like iron, Sir; nothing"'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 46. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 48-51. Remarkably alive piece of comedy, though far more merry, more joyous than the disillusioned spirit of the scene.

    J. E. Millais, ""There is Nothing like Iron, Sir, Nothing", Orley Farm


  5. 'Then they all marched out of the room, each with his own glass'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 72. It's too elegant, the emphasis is on the luxury of the room's accoutrements and gentlemanliness of the figures. Well drawn, but not comic enough.

    J. E. Millais, "And then they all marched out of the room, each with his own glass," Orley Farm

  6. 'Mr Furnival's welcome home'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 86. Not successful; wife looks simply irritated; Mr Furnival looks way too young; faces expressionless.

    J. E. Millais, Mr and Mrs Furnival, "Mr Furnival's Welcome Home," Orley Farm

  7. '"Your son Lucius did say -- shopping?"'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 98. The timidity and hestitation on the figure representing Lady Mason is true to the text and effective. Mr. and Mrs Furnival now look older, worn; Mrs Furnival has something of the compassion and dignity she displays towards Lady Mason in later scenes when she discovers there is no liaison. Mr Furnival very good, tired, hair awry. Little touches good: an umbrella hanging from wall underneath worn hat. Bundle of letters on floor.

    John Everett Millais, "'Your son, Lucius did say -- shopping?'"[Lady Mason and Mrs Furnivall]

  8. 'Over their wine'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 110. Reprinted and discussed together with accompanying studied Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 42-44. My comment: successful depiction of psychological feel in text if you can accept the loss of detailed work in in the face facing frontwards.

  9. 'Van Bauhr's Dream'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 136. A scene of worn man in reverie; no such scene in text, but superb depiction of mood which is appropriate to many moments in Trollope's novels; male analogy to Lady Mason; see Trollope on the Net, Chapter 6.

    John Everett Millais, "Van Bauhr's Dream"

  10. The English Von Bauhr and his Pupil'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 140. Another scene which is expressive of mood and conversations that go on between Felix Graham and Augustus Staveley without there being an exacting detailed depiction of just this arrangement of figures in a landscape in the text.

  11. 'Christmas at Noningsby -- Morning'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 168. Expressionless faces; probably intended to suggest withdrawn melancholy poise, comes out as a face in hauteur.

  12. 'Christmas at Noningsby -- Evening'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 174. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 48-50. This picture has been reprinted many times as it is a rare scene for Trollope which includes children and presents Christmas as a merry, boisterous occasion. The blindfolding of Judge Staveley has a topsy-turvy effect as he is the Prospero of the novel.

    John Everett Millais, "Christmas at Noningsby -- Evening"


  13. '"Why should I not"'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p 200. Reprinted Hall, AT and His Illustrators, p. 45. My comment; throughout Sir Peregrine is made too young; the pose is too theatrical.

  14. 'Monkton Grange'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing p. i, p. 216. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, frontispiece, pp. 54-55. As this along with Hablôt Browne's depiction of a hunting scene in Can You Forgive Her? ('Edgehill', see directly below) constitute one of the two perhaps most frequently-reprinted of the illustrations to Trollope's illustrations, the impression is left that the novels are dominated by such scenes; nothing could be farther from the truth. They constitute interludes; there are in fact only four illustrations of hunting scenes among the hundreds of original and early illustrations to Trollope's novels. This is a later nostalgic emphasis and reading of Trollope's novels; not his own nor that of his contemporaries. See Trollope on the Net, Chapter 6. This is not to say that this and Brown's pictures are not attractive; they are.

    John Everett Millais, "Monkton Grange"


  15. 'Felix Graham in trouble'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 226. Well done picture of one young man aiding another amidst the bracken of a heath or hill-like landscape. Focus again on young men; emphasis in pictures creates accompanying story of young men in trouble.

  16. 'Footsteps in the corridor'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 241. This is a depiction of young girl with candle in corridor as older one comes out of sick room. The face of the older women is too wrinkled; again melancholy translates into hauteur.

  17. 'The Angel of Light'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 256. This is a successful depiction of young woman profoundly absorbed in the reading of a letter; her face is wholly in shadow yet alive with alertness; the room is detailed, poor yet respectable. Light wind blows the curtain out. Quality derives from sense of a real presence in the room.

    John Everett Millais, "Angel of Light" (Mary Snow)


  18. 'Lucius Mason in his Study'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 282. This equally successful depiction of a young man absorbed by the papers in front of him on his desk is found illustrated in a number of the novels. Trollope must have liked it. Again the story is as much Lucius's as Lady Mason's.

    John Everett Millais, "Lucius Mason in his Study"


  19. 'Peregrine's Eloquence'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 288. Reprinted and discussed together with a touched proof in Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 30-31. Lady Mason's face looks simply annoyed; otherwise very good. The glaring light out of young Peregrine's eyes, the hard face is right.

  20. 'Lady Staveley interrupting her Son and Sophia Furnival'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, facing i, p. 306 . Curious sad faces again.

    Volume II:

  21. 'Lady Mason Leaving the Court'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, frontispiece to Vol II. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40. This is the first of the series of Lady Mason's ordeal at court and at the Cleeve, all of which are wholly successful and have been reprinted and/or comment on in various books on Trollope and book illustration the Victorian period. Trollope has so many of these scenes where key characters are publicly humiliated.

    J. E. Millais, "Lady Mason Leaving the Court", Orley Farm

  22. 'John Kenneby and Miriam Dockwrath'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 10. The wizened, poverty-striken, and trapped expression on Miriam's face right -- as well as her strained attempt at a good-natured expression and her shabby clothes.

  23. 'Guilty'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p . 32. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40; also reprinted in Markwick, AT and Women, p. 55. See discussion of analogous scene illustrated by Francis Arthur Fraser in The Golden Lion of Granpère in Trollop on the Net, Chapter 6.

    J. E. Millais, "Guilt," Orley Farm

  24. 'Lady Mason after her Confession'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 40. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40. A picture of a woman in a poverty-striken room, clutching her shawl around her; all in dark shadows, her face downwards in still despair; together with Marcus Stone's depiction of Louis Trevelyan at the close of He Knew He Was Right, 'Trevelyan at Casalunga' (see Annotated Commentary 3 below), among the very best of the original illustrations to all Trollope's novels. It ought to be better known.

    John Everett Millais, "Lady Mason after her Confession"


  25. 'Bread Sauce is so ticklish'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, ii, p. 48. The expression on the face of the female recalls the inane smile seen on archaic Greek statues.

  26. 'Never is a very long word'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 76. The depiction of shamefastness in the young girl has dignity and repose; the mother looks concerned; there is intelligence in the faces.

  27. '"Tom", she said, "I have come back". Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 88. This one recalls Millais's depiction of a crisis between the Robarts's ('"Mark", she said, "the men are here"', see above). The problem is Mrs Furnival is again made too young. He is too tensed up. Millais's pictures are constantly slipping into irritation when he wants simple distress and stoic shared pity and admission of vulnerability.

  28. 'Lady Mason going before the Magistrates'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 96 Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40. Although the reader can see a parallel between this and many other scenes of pariahhood (Mr Crawley before the magistrates, Mr Fenwick before his townsmen), the loving attention to luxurious dress and withdrawn expression on face has the effect of making her a somewhat repressed trophy for rich people, not a woman in distress and embarrassment.
    J. E. Millais, "Lady Mason going before the Magistrates", Orley Farm


  29. 'Sir Peregrine at Mr Round's Office'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 126. Now Sir Peregrine looks too old,and Mr Round too round and somehow effeminate (the blond curly hair is overdone). >hr>

  30. '"Tell me, Madelaine, are you happy now?"'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 144:

    John Everett Millais, "Judge Staveley and his daughter"


    This is a remarkable depiction of imminent loss retrieved; the old man is gallant and strong, the girl looks up to him with quiet trust. See my Trollope on the Net, Chapter 6.

  31. "No surrender". Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 148. See Michael Mason, 'The Way We Look Now: Millais' Illustrations to Trollope', Art History, 1 (1978), pp. 313-25.

    Rhe relationship between the two male Ormes brought forward. The young man's face looks too sour; there's something wet about it.

  32. 'Mr Chaffanbrass and Mr Solomon Aram'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 172. Reprinted Hall, AT and His Illustrators, p. 46; Trollopiana, 27, p. 12; see also Mason, 'The Way We Look Now', pp. 313-25. The faces are lively and there is an alertness about gestures; problem for modern viewer is implied anti-semitism in the exaggerated features of the faces.

    John Everett Millais, "Mr Chaffanbrass and Mr Solomon Aram",


  33. 'The Court'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 190. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40; see also Mason, 'The Way We Look Now', pp. 313-25. Another of those illustrations which stand out among the all the original ones of the novels as peculiarly delicate in its psychological depictions and strong in its lines, composition, and shadowings. Superb.

    John Everett Millais, "The Court", Orley Farm

  34. 'The Drawing-Room at Noningsby'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 202. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 47-48. Quiet effectiveness of ordinary scene of people sitting around fire; very real somehow. To be compared with a number of scenes George Housman Thomas drew for The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire (see Annotated Commentary 2 below), especially, 'Grace Crawley reads her letter, "She read the beginning -- 'Dearest Grace'"'.

    John Everett Millais, "Drawing-Room at Noningsby", Orley Farm


  35. '"And how are they all at Noningsby?"'. Source: 1981 Dover Orley Farm, ii, p. 206. What is meant for an expression of overt anxiousness is lost in the translation from the woodcut to the print.

  36. '"How Can I Bear It?"'. Source: 1981 Dover OrleyFarm, ii, p. 240. Depiction of strain beyond endurance becomes one of theatrical hysteria and is not moving in the way intended. Lady Mason holds her head in a way that makes us think of someone with a bad headache.

  37. 'Bridget Bolster in Court'. Source: 1981 Dover OrleyFarm, ii, p. 246. Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40. We see the male authority figures arrayed from Lady Mason's standpoint.

  38. 'Lucius Mason, as he leaned on the Gate that was no longer his own' 1981 Dover OrleyFarm, ii, p 264. This depiction of absorption in a landscape centering on Lucius's lose ought to be better known; see Trollope on the Net, Chapter 6. It is Trollope himself as a young man; so many of these picture figure forth his inner life.

    John Everett Millais, "Lucius Mason, as he leaned on the Gate that was no longer his own, Orley Farm

  39. 'Farewell!' Source: 1981 Dover OrleyFarm, ii, p. 304 Reprinted and discussed Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40; Mason, 'The Way We Look Now' does justice to this lyrical depiction of the two grieving women parting, a scene, as he points out, only made possibly by Trollope's text, not one he dramatises, pp 316-19. The picture of the two women's yearning escapes the moralism of the event.

    John Everett Millais, "Farewell", Orley Farm

  40. 'Farewell'. Source: 1981 Dover OrleyFarm, ii, p. 310. Again see Hall, AT and His Illustrators, pp. 29-40; Mason, 'The Way We Look Now', pp. 316-19.
    John Everett Millais, "Farewell" [Sir Peregrine and Lady Mason], Orley Farm

From Trollope on the Net, Chapter 6, "On the Original Illustrations to Trollope's novels:

A visual realisation of such a description by Trollope -- and they are instrinsic to his power -- requires a drawing in the sixties or seventies style. In Orley Farm, Millais represents such scenes through detailed darkened landscapes which use black lines against a white groundwork so that the whole surface of the picture seems alive with feeling and a mellowed suggestiveness (see, for example, 'Lucius Mason, as he leaned on the Gate that was no longer his own', facing p. 264). In The Last Chronicle of Barset George Housman Thomas imitates Stone's sparser strokes to achieve the lighter painterly style of the landscapes in He Knew He Was Right; in Ralph the Heir, Francis Arthur Fraser uses silhouettes; and throughout Phineas Redux, Francis Montague Holl combines depictions of people in exacerbated states of distress with a dark chiaroscuro which gives his drawings the effect of a 'wash' of intensely-felt colour. Holl's style is associated with a slightly later pessimistic development from the idyllic called graphic realism; nonetheless, his pictures present the same autumnal mood or details and depictions of everyday moments in ordinary lives when the spirit falters, often just before rousing itself to fight again, that we find in Millais, Thomas and Fraser. All five artists create pictorial equivalents to Trollope's verbal suggestiveness. I instance the landscape scene in The Last Chronicle where we see Lily Dale and Johnny Eames walking side-by-side together as she once more lets him know she does not want him as her husband, and one of the hero of Ralph the Heir some time after his father has died (The Last Chronicle, 'Lily wishes that they might swear to be brother and sister', p. 322; Ralph the Heir, 'Ralph, for the first time since the accident burst out into a flood of tears', facing p. 245) . . .

Trollope's novels are crowded with scenes in which a figure is preoccupied with writing or reading a letter or book, gazing out to contemplate a landscape or more citified scene, or looking inward at some inner and often deeply-troubling series of memories. Out of some 446 early drawings for Trollope's novels I have been able to study, over thirty are pictures of someone writing or reading a letter or book, and some eighty more depict someone engrossed by his or her feelngs or thoughts in a dream-inducing pictorial space.25 It is no exaggeration to say that most of the moments chosen either by Trollope or his illustrators for visualisation arise from an outwardly dramatised but still essentially inward moment of which the salient spoken phrase Trollope often sent his illustrator is merely a fleeting verbal sign . . .

The original illustrations to Trollope's novels also include lightly comic and gay moments (see Millais's often-reprinted 'There is nothing like iron, Sir, nothing', and 'Christmas at Noningsby -- Evening', Orley Farm, i, facing pp. 46 and 174).48 There are two sparkling scenes of hunts (Millais's Monkton Grange', Orley Farm, i, facing p. 216, and Browne's 'Edgehill', Can You Forgive Her?, facing p. 148) . . .

I end this interlude with an illustration from Trollope's favorite series, Millais's from Orley Farm, 'Tell me, Madeline, are you happy now?' (Orley Farm, ii, facing p. 144). We see an elderly man in a high top hat, offering a chivalrous arm in a cordial comfortable manner (he clearly does not think he will be rebuffed) to a lovely young woman. She looks slightly upward into the alert eyes of the old man with relief and gratitude in her own. Here we have the perceptive and humane Judge Staveley moments after he has told Madeline, his daughter, that she may marry out of her caste Felix Graham, a lawyer who will probably never make much money. The Judge can and will help his daughter and her husband. They turn away from us to set out together on their evening walk through the late winter or early spring woods. The consolation is in the acknowledgement that some important loss has been avoided; the lingering note of plangency that hovers over the picture, and which the reader is invited to find in Trollope's text, comes from an assertion in the picture that any similar permanent losses the reader has endured might have been avoided too.

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