Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francis-davis-millet-1634" aria-label="More by Francis Davis Millet" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Francis Davis Millet</a>
Between Two Fires
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1892
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
anxiety
bench
bowl
bread
candelabra
clothing and personal items
dining room
domestic
domestic
dress: ceremonial/royal
drink, wine
drinking
eating
eating and drinking
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
flask
flirtation
food and drink
furnishings
glass
hand / hands on hip
hat
hat, cap
heating and lighting
individuals: male
interiors
jug
kitchen
leisure and pastimes
Macarthur, Lindsay
maid
man
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
puritan dress
sex and relationships
sitting
society
standing
table
table cloth
talking
vessels and containers
woman
work and occupations
painting oil paint canvas
Between Two Fires
support: 740 × 914 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1892
<strong>Francis Davis Millet</strong> 1846-1912
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<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millet-between-two-fires-n01611" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01611</span></a> <strong>Between Two Fires</strong> <em>c.</em>1892
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Inscribed 'F.D. Millet' b.r.<br/>
Oil on canvas, 29 1/8 x 36 5/8 (74 x 93)<br/>
Chantrey Purchase 1892<br/>
<em>Prov:</em> Chantrey Trustees (purchased from the artist 1892)<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> RA, London, May-August 1892 (12); <em>Art Exhibition</em>, Hampstead Central Library, London, June-July 1928 (95); <em>The Chantrey Collection</em>, RA, London, January-March 1949 (33); <em>Works from the Chantrey Collection</em>, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, June-September 1950 (51); <em>Victorian Paintings from the Tate Gallery</em>, Public Library, Tunbridge Wells, July-August 1959 (1); <em>Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition 1768-1968</em>, RA, London, December 1968-March 1969 (407, repr. in illustrated supplement p.85)<br/>
<em>Repr:</em> <em>RA Pictures</em> (London 1892), p.31; Rockwell Kent (ed.), <em>World Famous Paintings</em> (New York 1939), pl.95 in colour; Samuel Isham and Royal Cortissoz, <em>The History of American Painting</em> (New York 1944), fig.90
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Dr John A.P. Millet wrote that 'Between Two Fires' is a very typical example of the style in which his father was trained at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. Like most other <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of the period, it was executed in the 14th century Abbot's Grange in Broadway, Worcestershire, which Millet had salvaged from falling into complete disrepair, and had for many years used as a studio (he painted in the old refectory). A professional model - probably a certain Miss Green - posed for both the girls. Angelo Colarossi, Millet's regular model for male figures, was doubtless used for some of the routine poses for the Puritan, but the facial expression seems to have been taken from Lindsay Macarthur, a Highland <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> artist 'with a sardonic, biting humour, a quick temper and fierce loyalties', who was one of the group of artists living in or near Broadway at the period. Lindsay Macarthur was the model for another of Millet's pictures, 'The Black Sheep', now in the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts (letters of 15 December 1954 and 31 January 1955).
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<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.520-1, reproduced p.520
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-14T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults anxiety bench bowl bread candelabra clothing and personal items dining room domestic domestic dress: ceremonial/royal drinking drink, wine eating eating and drinking emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas flask flirtation food and drink furnishings glass hand / hands on hip hat hat, cap heating and lighting individuals: male interiors jug kitchen leisure and pastimes Macarthur, Lindsay maid man named individuals objects people portraits puritan dress sex and relationships sitting society standing table table cloth talking vessels and containers woman work and occupations