A Visit to Christ in the House of His Parents
My Mum and Christ in the House of His Parents, c.1849 - 50 Sir John Everett Millais Tate Britain, London
There’s a really nice video on YouTube by Fr. Patrick, from the inspirational www.christian.art website about the Pre-Raphaelite painting Christ in the House of His Parents by Sir John Everett Millais which was created 1849–1850.
I sent the link to my Mum and she really wanted to go and see the painting - I did too - and so I suggested we take the train to London for the day and visit Tate Britain where the painting is kept. I have a real soft spot for the Pre-Raphaelites having first become aware of them in my early teens. I’d take the bus from Church Street in Wellingborough to Marlebone Station and on to Tate Britain to see them - it was one of my first independent teen ventures back in the 1980s.
Well this trip felt a bit like those trips but I’d brought my Mum along … and my daughter and my sister came too, we all came to see Christ in His boyhood home, and it was fabulous. The angles all seem a bit wrong, like in St. Joseph’s shoulders - there is an off-kilter feeling about all the bodies really. They vibe with the workshop tools on the wall. I think that awkwardness helps the painting to only just swerve looking too overworked. I like the glimpse of Paradise through one of the windows. Mostly I feel like one of those sheep looking for Christ through the other window
But how beautiful the visual knot of the kiss at the centre of the painting between Our Lady and Jesus.
I’m much younger than those Pre Raphaelite paintings and always will be, but they’re definitely ageing better.
‘Till next time.
#tate #christianart #tatebritain
Fr Patrick of @christianart visits Tate Britain to reflect on one of the most striking—and once controversial—religious paintings of the Victorian era: Christ in the House of His Parents by Sir John Everett Millais. This painting, also known as The Carpenter’s Shop, is a cornerstone of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and one of the best-recognised works of that period. Millais, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, painted the Holy Family in a raw and radically naturalistic way—departing from classical, idealised portrayals. His goal, and that of his fellow Brotherhood members, was to revive artistic styles from before the High Renaissance—before Raphael, after whom the movement was named. Standing in Tate Britain’s Pre-Raphaelite gallery, surrounded by luminous works by Millais, Holman Hunt, and Rossetti, Fr Patrick explores how this painting invites us into a moment of quiet drama and theological depth. Read more about the video here: https://christian.art/featured-video/
https://youtu.be/7LFmUWmJPEE?si=GJEVnvVHFVXad9NB
