Lot 90: Michael Frederick Halliday (1822-1869)

Portrait of a Girl, adorned with cowslips, bluebells and a daisy signed with monogram and dated '1858' (lower left) oil on panel 8 x 6 in. (20.3 x 15.2 cm.) NOTES Halliday was a close friend of both Millais, with whom he shared a passion for hunting, shooting, and fishing, and Holman Hunt. He accompanied Hunt on his return from the Near East in 1855, and shared a studio with him in Pimlico and Campden Hill. The influence of the two Pre-Raphaelite brothers permeates Halliday's work, stylistically and in terms of subject matter. Spring flowers occur as a leitmotif throughout Millais's oeuvre, from The Order of Release, through to the memorable portrait of his daughter, Sleeping, sold in these Rooms on 10 June 1999. A direct comparison with the present picture can be found in Millais's The Bride (private collection), thought also to be datable to 1858, in which a girl is similarly garlanded. Millais collaborated with Halliday in painting the landscape background of his best known picture The Measure for the Wedding Ring, formerly in the collection of Evelyn Waugh, and his influence can also be discerned in The Blind Basket Maker with his first child (Sotheby's London, 30 March 1994, lot 166, sold for œ100,000).