The Boyhood of Raleigh by Sir John Everett Millais 1870
I love this painting for the way it depicts the power of storytelling.
Look at the eyes and postures of the boys as they listen with all of themselves.
The Boyhood of Raleigh – Fine Art Friday
The Boyhood of Raleigh by Sir John Everett Millais 1870
A Living Pencil 
What a fun picture! Fine Art Friday….what a great idea for homeschool. Where do you go for the pics??? Enjoy your blog so much….I sent your list of WWI books to my Dad who is an avid reader…..he’d read quite a few but not all and made himself a list from it. Thanks!
That’s great, I can almost hear the story myself!
Oh, I love the picture! Yes, the eyes. I found it enlarged online to see closer…did you see the dead bird on the bench behind the storyteller? The miniature ship? And the dried starfish? What a wonderful picture to include as we study Walter Raleigh! Thank you so much, Carol! I echo toomanyhats…where did you come across this picture? I’ve scurried through Magistramater all year but have not had time for any comments. Loved the recent WWI book post. Hope to get through some of the Perry books myself!Janie
Ah, yes, I now see that Malais is the one who painted the lovely Orphelia!
I love the muted shades in this painting, in addition to the intensity of mood that you point out. By the way, I just picked up Guns of August, and I highly recommend reading All Quiet on the Western Front. A student of mine once commented that he hated All Quiet… because it was “so exaggerated!” As I talked with him, I realized that he had lived quite a sheltered life (no t.v. allowed, etc.) and he really couldn’t grasp the realities of war and its effects on the human mind and heart. He has since graduated from college and most recently published a very real life article about his experience of ‘smuggling’ cats to people dying of AIDS in Christianity Today — God has brought this young man into the real world and is using him! (Sorry to get side-tracked in this comment Blessings, Laurie
Hi, toomanyhats! Thanks for commenting. I love postcard books of art. I picked one up at a thrift shop on the Pre-Raphaelite Painters, a school of art best known by Dante Rossetti and John Waterhouse. Most pictures have very dark backgrounds, romantic red-headed women, gauzy angelic creatures and classical themes. I generally like the look in small doses. The Boyhood of Raleigh jumped out at me by its contrast with the other postcards.Janie!! It’s always a banner day when I get a comment from you, my friend. I’m delighted to know that you can use this picture in your teaching. Thank you for pointing out more details. One can almost feel the callouses on the storyteller’s heels. (I miss you, my friend. You have made an imprint on my life.)Laurie, I love comments that “get away” and take on their own life. Never apologize to me for long comments. It is fun to follow the course of former students, isn’t it? (One of my former students just accompanied the First Lady on a trip to Europe.) I’m going to have to track down that article in Christianity Today. All Quiet is on my to-read list. I’m having a hard time getting chores done, because I’m so absorbed in Tuchman’s book. The writing is splendid. I can already see that my WWI reading will take me to Christmas. I can’t get it all done this summer.
Found it, Carol!! And you hit the nail on the head with reference to *storytelling*A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling (or narrative) in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to “evoke worlds.”(Sentence is clipped from the Wikipedia article on Imagination-fyi)