The Innocence and Honesty of Children: ‘My First Sermon’ and ‘My Second Sermon’

Light remarks about interesting art

Detail of "My First Sermon," 1863 by John Everett Millais. Art Renewal Center

Brits of the Victorian age went to church. They also brought their children to church so they could listen to inspiring sermons. Very much a part of his age, artist John Everett Millais (1829–1896) and his family attended church services.

In 1863, he brought his 5-year-old daughter Effie to her first church service. Artist that he was, he captured this in his painting “My First Sermon,” which met with great success. His son, John Guille Millais, noted: “This little picture of Effie was extremely popular.”

In the painting, Effie sits bolt upright and attentive in a cubicle, with her feet on a stool and her hands in a muff, eagerly awaiting what would happen. Her hat sports a feather. Her red cape drapes around her body, with yellow gloves set to the side. The red of the coat and stockings attracts the eye against the darker green of the bench.

"My First Sermon," 1863, by John Everett Millais. Oil on canvas; 3 feet by 2 feet, 6 inches. Art Renewal Center

She is ready for something very interesting to occur. “The poignancy comes from guessing it is all really over her head,” according to a comment on The Victorian Web.

The younger Millais wrote that the seating was “old highback pews” in All Saints Church at Kingston-on-Thames, where Millais’s parents lived.

Upon seeing the painting, the Archbishop of Canterbury is reported to have said: “Art has, and ever will have, a high and noble mission to fulfil. ... We feel ourselves the better and the happier when our hearts are enlarged as we sympathise with the joys and the sorrows of our fellowmen, faithfully delineated on the canvas; when our spirits are touched by the playfulness, the innocence, the purity, and may I not add (pointing to Millais’ picture of ‘My First Sermon’) the piety of childhood.”

In a witty follow-up of “My First Sermon” a year later, titled “My Second Sermon,” Millais painted his daughter once more attending a church service. Here, the novelty of going to church had worn off for the artist’s little girl. Her feet hang in abandon next to the footstool. Effie has taken off her hat as she leans sideways and enjoys a catnap.

"My Second Sermon," 1864, by John Everett Millais. Oil on canvas; 3 feet by 2 feet, 6 inches. Art Renewal Center

The message is clear when paired with “My First Sermon.” Effie is bored by the sermon and chooses to sleep rather than listen. When the Archbishop of Canterbury saw this painting, he warned against “the evil of lengthy sermons and drowsy discourses.” In other words, preachers should keep their sermons short and to the point. This painting gives a clear message to preachers that, when preaching to children, they should consider a shorter homily. Listen to the children.

Millais’s favorite subjects were his children. According to an article in The Reader: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Art cited on The Victorian Web: “Anything that a man undertakes for wife or children is likely to be done con amore; and, when such an artist as Millais paints his children, he throws all his strength into his work. In the face of this child, . . . we are sensible of an almost unique power, possessed by Millais, of seizing that look of inward consciousness, of the soul irradiating the features—only to be seen in its utmost purity in the sweet faces of children.”