Sir John Everett Millais, PRA, 
British 1829-1896- 
Study for 'The Sound of Many Waters'; 

Sir John Everett Millais, PRA, 
British 1829-1896- 

Study for 'The Sound of Many Waters'; 

pencil, pen, and black ink heightened with white and scratching out on paper, with a small pencil sketch of trees verso, 24 x 17.2 cm. 

Provenance: 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
The present work is likely a preparatory sketch for a landscape painted by Millais in 1876 bearing the same title, although varying somewhat in composition. The larger painting was exhibited at London's Royal Academy in 1877 and is now in the collection of the National Trust for Scotland at Fyvie Castle [84.112.1]. This depicts the Rumbling Bridge Falls near Dunkeld, Perthshire, and is one of a number of atmospheric Scottish landscapes Millais completed over the course of the 1870s, the best-known of which is probably his striking 'Chill October', now in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

Between 1870-1892 Millais painted twenty-one landscape scenes, which have been described as ‘the great dark horses of his career’. The finished painting was conceived 'en plein air by Millais' and he had a wooden hut, constructed by a local carpenter, to shelter him and his large canvas from the elements. During the process, Millais was apparently pestered by a local 'madman' who 'preached, barefooted, to the rocks and trees all day' until he was removed by the police. At another point his hut was smashed on the rocks although the painting was rescued and taken to a local cottage. The finished work, however, was described by Rossetti as 'the finest landscape yet exhibited by Mr. Millais.' 

The approach of the present work, particularly in its distinctive hatching, is evident in other works by Millais, including his illustration which sold at Bonhams, London, on 31 January 2024, lot 113 (£3,584), and his 'The auctioneer', which sold at Christie's, London, on 12 December 2019, lot 101 (£3,750).