The last Edwardian sportsman

Sporting paintings by Raoul Millais, whose life spanned the 20th century, are hanging in hunting homes all over the country. Liam Clancytells us about the artist and his life well travelled

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ONE winter’s evening in the 1920s, as Raoul Millais hacked home from a day with the Beaufort, he found himself riding alongside LieutenantColonel Guy Hanmer.

“You the painter fellow?” Guy asked.

Raoul confirmed that he was. They clopped along in silence for a couple of minutes while the Colonel digested this, then he declared, “You must agree, old boy, it’s damned odd for a fellow to paint.”

It would have been odd if Raoul Millais hadn’t painted. His grandfather was John Everett Millais, who co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and went on to be one of the most successful artists of the Victorian age. Everett Millais was also a keen rider to hounds, who hunted extensively in the Shires in the company of his good friend, the cartoonist John Leech.

Everett’s son John Guille Millais inherited both his father’s artistic flair and his passion for the outdoors. Soldier, travel writer, naturalist and big game hunter, he also established a reputation as one of the leading wildlife illustrators of the day.

Raoul was John Guille’s third child, born in Sussex in 1901 at the dawn of the Edwardian era. He slipped effortlessly into the Millais groove of artist and sportsman from earliest childhood. His nanny found him impossible to control and would lock him in an attic box room, where he kept himself amused by drawing on the pink plaster walls with crayons he smuggled into his cell.