Ashmolean Gets Ruskin

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has acquired John Everett Millais' Portrait of John Ruskin (1853) under the Acceptance in Lieu of Inheritance scheme (CLICK). This is the portrait that destroyed the art critic's marriage. While painting the portrait, posed during the friends' holiday in Scotland, Millais fell in love with Ruskin's teenage wife, Effie. The following year the marriage was annulled and a year later Millais and Effie wed. Oh, the scandal! But by today's standards it was all very prim and proper. The story has recently been turned into a movie starring Dakota Fanning (CLICK).