Nina, Daughter Of Frederick Lehmann, Esq. 1869

Sir John Everett Millais painted young Nina Lehmann with oil on canvas, capturing her seated with a rose, a symbol laden with historical meaning. The rose she holds, typically associated with love and beauty, has roots stretching back to ancient Greece, where it was linked to Aphrodite. In Christian iconography, the rose can symbolize the Virgin Mary, embodying purity and divine love. This potent symbol reappears across art history; its meaning shifting yet echoing through time. Think of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" where roses fall around the goddess, or its symbolic function in romantic poetry where it represents ephemeral beauty. The slight melancholy in Nina's eyes, combined with the rose, evokes a complex emotional state, a quiet contemplation on fleeting youth and beauty, engaging viewers on a deep, subconscious level. The rose, as a cultural motif, showcases a non-linear, cyclical progression, resurfacing and evolving through different historical contexts, its layers of meaning accumulating with each appearance.