Euphemia "Effie" Chalmers Millais

Lady Euphemia Chalmers "Effie" Gray Millais

Find a Grave Full bio by: Bob Hufford

• Born: 1828, Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
• Died: Dec. 23, 1897, Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland

Artist's Model, Folk Figure. The subject of several Pre-Raphaelite painters, she is probably better remembered for the bizarre and scandalous circumstances of her first marriage.

Born Euphemia Chalmers Gray, she was raised in central Scotland and at some point her childhood attracted the attention of John Ruskin.

When Effie was 12 Ruskin penned "The King of the Golden River" in her honour and a romance gradually ensued. They married on April 10, 1848

The Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, whose friend Effie had been and of whose work Ruskin was then a strong supporter of, made Effie the central figure in his 1853 "The Order of Release, 1746" and in 1854 Effie petitioned for an annulment on the grounds of "incurable impotency".

She married Millais in 1855 and they had eight children. She continued modelling for a time and influenced her husband in his move away from the Pre-Raphaelite school into the more financially remunerative field of portraiture.

Effie made it to the screen several times beginning with 1912's silent "The Love of John Ruskin; she was later portrayed by Neve Campbell in the 1994 short "The Passion of John Ruskin" and by Zoe Tapper in the BBC series "Desparate Romantics" (2009). David Lang's "Modern Painters" was premiered by the Santa Fe Opera in 1995 while in 2011 Dr. Suzanne Fagence Cooper published "Effie: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin, and John Everett Millais".

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via husband John Millais by SmartCopy: Feb 18 2015, 16:00:31 UTC

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• Residence: Perth ScotlandPerth Scotland
• Residence: Perth ScotlandPerth Scotland
• Residence: Cromwell Place London London, Cromwell PlaceLondonUnited Kingdom - July 21 1865
• Residence: 17 - July 21 1865
• Residence: 17 Cromwell Place London London, 17 Cromwell PlaceLondon London - July 21 1865
• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via son John Guille Millais by SmartCopy: Feb 18 2015, 15:57:08 UTC