Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate collection highlights
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Art Fund
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>
Christ in House His Parents Carpenters Shop
Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund and various subscribers 1921
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: birds
animals: mammals
Baptism - bowl of water
basket
bench
Bible: New Testament
bird - non-specific
bleeding
blood
body
bowl
boy
carpenter
children
Christ
Christian congregation - sheep
comforting
Crucifixion - wood, nails
diseases and conditions
dove
Everett, Edwin
field
Flagellation - basket
flower
furnishings
hand / hands raised
Hodgkinson, Mary
Holy Family
Holy Spirit - dove
Humphreys, Nöel
industrial and crafts
interiors
kissing
kneeling
ladder
landscape
looking / watching
man
Millais, John William
Millais, William
nail
named individuals
natural phenomena
objects
Passion - red flower
people
pincers / pliers
plants and flowers
ram
religion and belief
religious
Saints
saw
scientific and measuring
set square
sheep
soul - bird
St Anne
St John the Baptist
St Joseph
St Ledger, H.
standing
symbols and personifications
tool
tools and machinery
Trinity - carpenter’s triangle
Tupper, Alexander
vessels and containers
vice
Vinter, John
Virgin Mary
water
woman
woman, old
wood
work and occupations
workshop
workspaces
wounded
<p>This picture was exhibited with words from the Old Testament, often seen as prefiguring Christ’s Crucifixion: ‘And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then shall he answer. Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’ Millais based the setting on a real carpenter’s shop. Symbols of the Crucifixion figure prominently: the wood, the nails, the cut in Christ’s hand and the blood on his foot. Millais was viciously attacked in the press for showing the holy family as ‘ordinary’. Charles Dickens described Christ as ‘a hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a night-gown.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
29 August 2001 – 25 July 2005
2005-07-25
29 August 2001
2001-08-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-29
Art and Victorian Society
Collection based display
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-23
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2003-10-23
National Art Collections Fund: Centenary Exhibition 2003
Loan-out
1 August 2005 – 30 July 2007
2007-07-30
1 August 2005
2005-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-01
The Pre-Raphaelites
Collection based display
10 August 2007 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
10 August 2007 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
2007-08-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-08-10
Pre-Raphaelites and Painters of the Ideal
Collection based display
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/
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)
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
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 13 October 2013
2013-10-13
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
Christ in the House of His Parents (‘The Carpenter’s Shop’)
support: 864 × 1397 mm
frame: 1590 × 1873 × 141 mm
Purchased with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> and various subscribers 1921
<p>This is Millais's first important religious subject, showing a scene from the boyhood of Christ.  When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850 it was given no title, but accompanied by a biblical quotation: 'And one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thine hands?  Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' (Zech. 13:6)

</p><p>Christian symbolism figures prominently in the picture. The carpenter's triangle on the wall, above Christ's head, symbolises the Holy Trinity. The wood and nails prefigure the crucifixion, as does the blood on the young Christ's hand, which he has cut on a nail, and which drips onto his foot.  The young St John is shown fetching a bowl of water with which to bathe the wound.  This clearly identifies him as the Baptist, and the image is extended by the white dove perched on the ladder, symbol of the Holy Spirit, which descended from Heaven at the baptism of Christ.  

</p><p>Following 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/pre-raphaelite" title="Glossary definition for 'Pre-Raphaelite'"><span>Pre-Raphaelite</span></a> credo of truth to nature, Millais painted the scene in meticulous detail and based the setting on a real carpenter's shop in Oxford Street.  The sheep in the background, intended to represent the Christian flock, were drawn from two sheep's heads obtained from a local butcher.  He avoided using professional models, and relied instead on friends and family. Joseph's head was a <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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Millais's own father, but the body was based on a real carpenter, with his rough hands, sinewy arms and prominent veins.  The Virgin Mary was his sister-in-law Mary Hodgkinson, who also appears in Millais's <i>Isabella </i>(1848-9, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool); John the Baptist was posed by a young adopted cousin, Edwin Everett; and Nöel Humphreys, the son of an artist friend, sat for the young Christ.

</p><p>The public reaction to the picture was one of horror and Millais was viciously attacked by the press. The<i> Times </i>described 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> as 'revolting' and objected to the way in which the artist had dared to depict the Holy Family as ordinary, lowly people in a humble carpenter's shop 'with no conceivable omission of misery, of dirt, of even disease, all finished with the same loathsome minuteness'.  Charles Dickens was one of the most vehement critics, describing the young Christ as 'a hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-headed boy, in a bed gown' (<i>Household Words</i>, 15 June 1850).

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.77-79, reproduced p.79, in colour. <br/>Elizabeth Prettjohn, <i>The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites</i>, London 2000, pp.189-91, reproduced pp.46-7, in colour.<br/>Malcolm Warner, <i>The Victorians - British Painting 1837-1901</i>, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997, pp.65-66, reproduced pl.17, in colour.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>John Everett Millais depicted the Holy family as working people, in keeping with a new respect for labour at the time. He painted Joseph with the head of his own father and the tanned and muscular arms of a local grocer. The realistic details convey deeper meanings. The drops of blood on Jesus’ hand and foot foretell the nail wounds of the crucifixion. Millais arranged the figures into a striking pattern, with every gaze towards Mary and Jesus. The novelist Charles Dickens led a popular outcry against this picture.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults animals: birds animals: mammals Baptism - bowl of water basket bench Bible: New Testament bird - non-specific bleeding blood body bowl boy carpenter children Christ Christian congregation - sheep comforting Crucifixion - wood, nails diseases and conditions dove Everett, Edwin field Flagellation - basket flower furnishings hand / hands raised Hodgkinson, Mary Holy Family Holy Spirit - dove Humphreys, Nöel industrial and crafts interiors kissing kneeling ladder landscape looking / watching man Millais, John William Millais, William nail named individuals natural phenomena objects Passion - red flower people pincers / pliers plants and flowers ram religion and belief religious Saints saw scientific and measuring set square sheep soul - bird standing St Anne St John the Baptist St Joseph St Ledger, H. symbols and personifications tool tools and machinery Trinity - carpenter’s triangle Tupper, Alexander vessels and containers vice Vinter, John Virgin Mary water woman woman, old wood work and occupations workshop workspaces wounded