John Everett Millais – Christmas Eve

In his painting “Christmas Eve”, John Everett Millais is offering us an alternative vision of Christmas – a more reflective, calm, even lonely vision of the usually vibrant and social event.

John Everett Millais, Christmas Eve, 1887

John Everett Millais’ painting “Christmas Eve”, painted in 1887, has that particularly melancholy, lonesome feeling which is not the first thing we associate with Christmas or the holiday season. The painting shows the west side of Murthly Castle in Perthshire, Scotland, at the time the seat of Sir Archibald Douglas Stewart. The dusty pink sky hints at a late afternoon, the moments just before darkness will start falling, as winter days are short and light is fleeting. Still there is no direct sunlight to melt the snow. The trees in the background are sinking into darkness already while the castle is perched on the top of the hill exuding a cold and unwelcoming energy. The trees nearer to the viewer are all bare but their branches are painted very elaborately, going in all directions, as if they are dancing. A drywall is separating the castle from the snow-covered valley bellow where we see four crows; three looking for something on the ground, and the fourth one spreadin its wings are slowly flying away. One less living thing in an otherwise lonely scene. There are no people presented in the scene, nor is there much trace of people or human activity, save for the footsteps which will soon be covered by new snow anyway. A Gothic castle, pink sky, crows; all very romantic elements and if the painting wasn’t titled “Christmas Eve”, there would be nothing unusual about it. Perhaps it was just that Millais painted this on the Christmas Eve, but nonetheless this painting does offer a somewhat different view of a holiday which is usually all about connection, family gathering, vibrant decor, food and music. Millais’ reminds us of the contemplative, calm, introspective nature of winter. There is indeed nothing wrong in going for a solitary walk on a Christmas Eve in order to escape the hustle of the holidays.