Steps in a Garden

About the Artwork

William Henry Millais was closely associated with the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He sketched extensively from nature in the early 1850s. Here, Millais painted a sequestered landscape of rough-hewn steps ascending a shady slope. A smattering of light pierces a dense canopy of trees, allowing little to flourish except for the foxgloves that adorn the foreground. Ivy growing on the hillside, a decaying stump, and moss-covered steps suggest the passage of time.

Inscriptions

initialed, in orange paint over purple paint, at lower left: WHM; inscribed, in purple paint, at lower left: 1860

Provenance

?-?: D. Parkinson 1977: (sale, Sotheby's, London, December 6, 1977, no. 36) after 1977-?: (Maas Gallery, London) ?-2013: Helen and Albert Borowitz, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH 2013-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013). Imagining the Garden. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2015-March 6, 2016).

Quick Overview

Artist: William Henry Millais (British, 1828–1899)
Date: 1860
Medium: watercolor and gouache with scratch-away technique to create highlights on sturdy-weight wove paper mounted to same by artist with color tests in margins of mount
Dimensions: Sheet: 33.8 x 26 cm (13 5/16 x 10 1/4 in.); Secondary Support: 39 x 32.4 cm (15 3/8 x 12 3/4 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz
Accession no.: 2013.240

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.