James Millar (artist)

James Millar (c. 1735 – 5 December 1805) was an English portrait painter.

Born in Birmingham, Millar is recorded in the town's Poor Law levy books in 1763[1] but was to become the leading Birmingham portrait painter of the last quarter of the 18th century.[2] Subjects of his portraits include John Baskerville, Francis Eginton, John Freeth and the wife of Lunar Society of Birmingham member Thomas Day.[3]

Millar's approach was strongly influenced by the Midlands Enlightenment – one of his works depicts allegories of wisdom, and symbols of science and the arts in the shadow of the tower of Birmingham's St. Philip's Church.[4]

Millar exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists in London between 1771 and 1790 and examples of his work are held by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Lichfield Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut.[5]

References

  1. ↑ JAMES MILLAR (FL.1763-1805), London: Christie's, 2006, retrieved 2012-10-27
  2. ↑ Biography for James Millar, Birmingham: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, retrieved 2012-10-27
  3. ↑ Painted by James Millar, Your Paintings, BBC, retrieved 2012-10-27
  4. ↑ Allegory of Wisdom and Science (frontpiece for the Encyclopaedia Britannica), Black Country History, retrieved 2012-10-27
  5. ↑ MILLAR, Circle of JAMES, London: John Bennett Fine Paintings, retrieved 2012-10-27
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