Editing Effie Gray (section)

== Marriage to John Everett Millais ==
[[File:Gray millais 1865.jpg|thumbnail|Albumen print photograph by [[Lewis Carroll]] from 21 July 1865 depicting Effie Gray, [[John Everett Millais]], and their daughters Effie and Mary at 7 Cromwell Place, signed "Effie C. Millais"]]
In 1855, she married John Millais and they had eight children together: Everett, born in 1856; George, born in 1857; Effie, born in 1858; Mary, born in 1860; Alice, born in 1862; Geoffrey, born in 1863; John in 1865; and Sophie in 1868. Their youngest son, [[John Guille Millais]], became a notable bird artist and gardener. Gray also modelled for a number of her husband's works, notably ''[[Peace Concluded]]'' (1856), which idealises her as an icon of beauty and fertility. In 1885, her husband was elevated to the [[baronetage]] by [[Queen Victoria]], having been created [[Millais baronets|Baronet Millais]] of Palace Gate, in the parish of [[St Mary Abbots|St Mary Abbot]], [[Kensington]], in the county of [[Middlesex]], and of [[Saint Ouen, Jersey|Saint Ouen]], in the Island of [[Jersey]].<ref name= londongazette>{{London Gazette |issue=25490 |date=14 July 1885 |page=3239 }}</ref> Upon her husband's elevation, Effie became entitled to use the style [[Lady#British titles|Lady]] Millais.<ref name= londongazette/>

=== Ruskin's rapport with Rose La Touche ===

In 1858, Ruskin met [[Rose La Touche]]; at the time she was 10 years old, and he became her teacher in drawing as well as other subjects.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruskin |first=John |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/worksofjohnruski35rusk/page/n77/mode/2up |title=The works of John Ruskin |publisher=London: George Allen; New York: Longmans, Green, and Co. |year=1909 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Edward Tyas |editor-link=Edward Tyas Cook |volume=35 |pages=lxvi–lxvii |language=English |chapter=Introduction |oclc=1097357632 |editor-last2=Wedderburn |editor-first2=Alexander Dundas Ogilvy}}</ref> Ruskin became attracted to La Touche and when she turned 18 sought to become engaged. Rose's parents were concerned and wrote to Gray, asking for her opinion of Ruskin as a husband. Her reply described him as "oppressive".<ref>This detail needs to be researched. See Gregory Murphy's Letter to the Editor in the New York Times, June 2000 (next citation). Murphy says the first letter went to Mr. Millais, and it was a second letter that went to Effie. This same source mentions the actual letters are in the [https://www.themorgan.org/search/site/Bowerswell%20Papers Bowerswell Papers] at the Morgan Library in New York. But quick research didn’t find the actual letters to confirm with Murphy wrote.</ref> The engagement was broken off.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Murphy |first=Gregory |date=2000-06-04 |title=Ruskin's Misogyny |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/04/books/l-ruskin-s-misogyny-440728.html |access-date=2021-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308121654/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/04/books/l-ruskin-s-misogyny-440728.html |archive-date=2016-03-08 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Prodger |first=Michael |date=29 March 2013 |title=John Ruskin's marriage: what really happened |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/29/ruskin-effie-marriage-inconvenience-brownell |access-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608062943/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/29/ruskin-effie-marriage-inconvenience-brownell |archive-date=2021-06-08}}</ref>

=== Influence on Millais ===
[[File:EFFIE.jpg|thumb|200px|Gray in middle age, painted by Millais. She is holding a copy of ''[[The Cornhill Magazine]]''.]]
Gray was an effective manager of Millais' career and often collaborated with him in choosing his subjects. Her journal indicates her high regard for her husband's art, and his works are still recognisably Pre-Raphaelite in style several years after his marriage.

However, Millais eventually abandoned the Pre-Raphaelite obsession with detail and began to paint in a looser style which produced more paintings for the time and effort. Many paintings were inspired by his family life with his wife, often using his children and grandchildren as models. Millais also used his sister-in-law, [[Sophie Gray]], then in her early teens, as the basis of some striking images in the mid to late 1850s, provoking suggestions of a mutual infatuation.<ref name=Cooper>Suzanne Fagence Cooper (2010) ''The Model Wife: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais''</ref>