Only a Lock of Hair

Only a Lock of Hair is an 1857–58 oil painting by the English artist John Everett Millais.^[1] The portrait shows a young woman in a dress russet-coloured fabric with areas of blue (possibly a shot silk, giving an iridescent effect)^[a] with lace at the collar and cuffs, in the process of cutting off a lock of her hair with a small pair of silver scissors, while she gazes off to her left.

Only a Lock of Hair
Artist	John Everett Millais
Year	1857–58
Type	Oil on panel
Dimensions	35.3 cm × 25 cm (13.9 in × 9.8 in)
Location	Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester

The painting

The woman's expression has been described as "distant and melancholy"^[1] and "of intense contemplation".^[2] The background of the painting is dark and featureless, focusing attention on the subject of the portrait.

A lock of hair carried symbolic weight in the Victorian period. It was used as a mourning memento, often included in mourning jewellery. However, as the young woman is cutting her own hair, it is more likely that in this case that the lock is to be given as a love token, perhaps to be worn in a locket. The woman's expression might suggests all is not right - perhaps a separation is imminent. Dr Angela Hesson observed that "Hair jewellery, whether worn as a reminder of an absent loved one, or in memory of a deceased one, provided a literal sense of physical proximity to the object of affection."^[2]

The painting was gifted to Manchester City Art Gallery by Mr James Gresham in 1917, accession number 1917.268.^[3]

See also

• List of paintings by John Everett Millais

Notes

1. The Manchester Art Gallery page about the painting describes this as "striped blue and russet coloured fabric", but the stripes are non-continuous and more likely an optical effect of the material type.