The Vale of Rest
Encyclopedia
The Vale of Rest is a painting by John Everett Millais
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The painting is of a graveyard, as night is coming on. Beyond the graveyard wall there's a low chapel with a bell. In the foreground of the scene, there are two nuns - the heads of the two nuns are level and symmetrical. They're Roman Catholic nuns, one of the nuns holds a rosary
, and one of the nuns is digging a grave. Her forearm and body strain under the weight of a shovelful. The other, overseeing the work, turns with a look of apprehension, anguish.
Art critic, Tom Lubbock : " Graves. Dusk. A walled enclosure. The spooky, looming trees. Nuns. Catholics (in England then, still an object of suspicion). Sexual segregation. Religiosity. Mistress and servant, a power relationship, maybe some deeper emotional bondage. Female labour. Something being buried or exhumed. Twin wreaths. The deep dark earth. Corpses, secrets, conspiracy, fear. It's a picture that pulls out all the stops."
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
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The painting is of a graveyard, as night is coming on. Beyond the graveyard wall there's a low chapel with a bell. In the foreground of the scene, there are two nuns - the heads of the two nuns are level and symmetrical. They're Roman Catholic nuns, one of the nuns holds a rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
, and one of the nuns is digging a grave. Her forearm and body strain under the weight of a shovelful. The other, overseeing the work, turns with a look of apprehension, anguish.
Art critic, Tom Lubbock : " Graves. Dusk. A walled enclosure. The spooky, looming trees. Nuns. Catholics (in England then, still an object of suspicion). Sexual segregation. Religiosity. Mistress and servant, a power relationship, maybe some deeper emotional bondage. Female labour. Something being buried or exhumed. Twin wreaths. The deep dark earth. Corpses, secrets, conspiracy, fear. It's a picture that pulls out all the stops."