The Ruling Passion

The Ruling Passion, sometimes called The Ornithologist, is a painting by John Everett Millais which was shown at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1885.

The painting depicts an older man lying on a chaise-longue. He is showing a stuffed bird, a king bird of paradise, to a group of children and a woman. The older girl on the left of the picture is holding a resplendent quetzal, and other specimens are scattered about. The attitude of the children ranges from the enthralled interest of the youngest two to the comparative indifference, almost boredom, of the oldest girl.

The work was inspired by a visit that Millais and his son John Guille Millais paid to the ornithologist John Gould shortly before his death in 1881. On the way home, Millais said to his son "That's a fine subject; a very fine subject. I shall paint it when I have time." It was several years after Gould's death before he had tim…

摘自英文维基百科「The Ruling Passion」（CC BY-SA 4.0），暂时没有中文条目。