That's Gneiss-Glenfinlas Again

Ruskin in Glenfinlas. This is Millais' portrait of the author.

The Glenfinlas burn, photo by JH . 2013.

I was in Glenfinlas last week, never for long enough, I'm sure.But this time I did get down to view the site of Ruskin's portrait by Millais. I climbed down twice. Once the hard way and then the somewhat easier .The hard way is not to be recommended, for one thing there are bilberries(?) growing on the bank and for another the easy way is just a bit more practical with a DSLR and tripod. Do it the easier way and you get the view which Millais saw.(Hint,turn to the left under a beech as you approach the new viewing platform.)

You can see the rock on which JR stood in the foreground of my photo and the curve of the darker rock which is also visible in the painting behind it.The whole scene was of considerable importance for Ruskin whose geological interests still seem to await attention from someone in that discipline.He said himself that he often stood in such a pose meditating on nature.One notion of Ruskin's which Lutyens quotes is his idea that Glenfinlas would be a good site for Millais to work in because he habitually painted brightly-which this shaded spot would scarcely permit.

There were very considerable practical difficulties in making the painting, certainly in so far as the work that was done in Glenfinlas.There are reports of Acland holding the canvas  at one point while Millais worked on it. There is  Millais' own account of his lonely autumnal sojourn when he had to return and had a kind of makeshift shelter constructed complete with woodburning stove.It wasn't very efficient, he said, but the smell of the woodsmoke was pleasant. It scarcely seems possible that Millais could have worked in such a cramped and uncomfortable area.But toil he did and it is to the credit of Alastair Grieve that the site was rediscovered in the 1960s.

The best acount of the circumstances surrounding the commission is still: Millais and the Ruskins-by Mary Lutyens.

For another post on the portrait look here