Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-john-everett-millais-bt-379" aria-label="More by Sir John Everett Millais, Bt" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir John Everett Millais, Bt</a>
Speak Speak
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1895
actions: postures and motions
adults
bed
bedroom
classical
couple
curtain
domestic
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fear
furnishings
ghost
heating and lighting
history
interiors
leisure and pastimes
letter
light / lamp
love
magic and occultism
man
marriage
natural phenomena
night
nostalgia
objects
people
reading
reading, writing, printed matter
recreational activities
religion and belief
Rome
sex and relationships
shadow
sitting
society
standing
times of the day
woman
<p>Millais viewed "Speak! Speak!" as one of his most serious and profound works. His son, J.G.Millais, explained it as follows: ''A young Roman has been reading through the night the letters of his lost love; ... at dawn, behold, the curtains of his bed are parted, and there before him stands, in spirit or in truth, the lady herself, decked as on her bridal night... An open door displays the winding stair down which she has come''. It was bought for the nation for £2,000, an enormous sum in 1895 which marked the extent of Millais''s professional reputation at this date.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2001</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
26 September 2007 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
26 September 2007 – 13 January 2008
2008-01-13
2007-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
7 June 2008 – 17 August 2008
2008-08-17
2008-06-07
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Kitakyushu-City, Japan)
30 August 2008 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
2008-08-30
Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan)
2007-09-26
Millais
Exhibition
15 February 2008 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
15 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-15
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
7 June 2008 – 17 August 2008
2008-08-17
2008-06-07
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Kitakyushu-City, Japan)
30 August 2008 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
2008-08-30
Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan)
2008-02-15
Millais
Loan-out
25 April 2013 – 1 September 2013
2013-09-01
25 April 2013 – 1 September 2013
2013-09-01
2013-04-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
2013-04-25
Love
Loan-out
9 June 2015 – 13 September 2015
2015-09-13
9 June 2015 – 13 September 2015
2015-09-13
2015-06-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-06-09
Fighting History
Exhibition
Speak! Speak!
support: 1676 × 2108 mm
frame: 2090 × 2537 × 135 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> 1895
<p><i>"Speak! Speak!"</i> was painted at Millais's Scottish home near Bowerswell and the interior setting for the <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>painting</span></a> was modelled on the turret room of the castle at Murthly in Perthshire, the estate that Millais rented from 1881 for shooting and fishing and where he spent much of his time during the later years of his career. The four poster bed which occupies a large portion of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> was copied from a bed bought in Perth expressly for this purpose. The lamp was likewise painted from a specially-made copy of a lamp that Millais had seen and made a sketch of in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Such details are evidence of Millais's observance of the principle of truth to nature that he had practised throughout his earlier <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/pre-raphaelite" title="Glossary definition for 'Pre-Raphaelite'"><span>Pre-Raphaelite</span></a> phase of the 1840s and 1850s. 

</p><p>The meaning of the painting was felt generally to be obscure and the story as related by Millais's son J.G. Millais, locates the scene in Ancient Rome: 'It is that of a young Roman who has been reading through the night the letters of his lost love; and at dawn, behold, the curtains of his bed are parted, and there before him stands, in spirit or in truth, the lady herself, decked as on her bridal night, and gazing upon him with sad but loving eyes' (Millais, II, p.304). The critic of the <i>Art Journal</i> described <i>"Speak! Speak!"</i> as 'a powerful canvas, broadly handled and eloquently telling its tale' (<i>Art Journal</i>, 1895, pp.164-6). In fact, the identity of the female figure at the foot of the bed caused some consternation, an effect which Millais had fully intended, as Millais's biographer M.H. Spielmann recorded: 'When I remarked that I could not tell whether the luminous apparition was a spirit or a woman he was pleased: "That's just what I want", he said; "I don't know either, nor", he added, pointing to the picture, "does he" ' (quoted in Flint, p.261).

</p><p>Millais viewed <i>"Speak! Speak!"</i> as one of his most serious and profound works, although it was not widely regarded as an example of the artist at his best. Following its exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1895, <i>"Speak! Speak!"</i> was bought for the nation under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest for £2,000, an enormous sum in 1895 which marked the high esteem of Millais's professional reputation at this date. Millais was to become President of the Royal Academy in the following year.

</p><p>
</p><p>Further reading:<br/>J.G. Millais,<i> The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais</i>, II, London 1899. <br/>Kate Flint, <i>The Victorians and The Visual Imagination</i>, Cambridge 2000, p.37 and pp.259-61, reproduced p.261.

</p><p>Rebecca Virag<br/>March 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Millais viewed "Speak! Speak!" as one of his most serious and profound works. His son, J.G.Millais, explained it as follows: ''A young Roman has been reading through the night the letters of his lost love; ... at dawn, behold, the curtains of his bed are parted, and there before him stands, in spirit or in truth, the lady herself, decked as on her bridal night... An open door displays the winding stair down which she has come''. It was bought for the nation for £2,000, an enormous sum in 1895 which marked the extent of Millais''s professional reputation at this date. </p>
Display caption
2001-09-05T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults bed bedroom classical couple curtain domestic emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fear furnishings ghost heating and lighting history interiors leisure and pastimes letter light / lamp love magic and occultism man marriage natural phenomena night nostalgia objects people reading reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities religion and belief Rome sex and relationships shadow sitting society standing times of the day woman