On the cover: “Getting Better.” Painting © Christie’s Images / The Bridgeman Art Library International. Reproduced with permission.

This painting, titled “Getting Better,” dated 1876, is by John Everett Millais (1829–1896). Millais, a British artist, was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, along with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rosetti. He was a highly successful portraitist, becoming the president of the Royal Academy of Arts late in his life. Both the subject—a child convalescing from a fever being visited by her friends—and the style of this painting are quite sentimental, in keeping with popular expectations in the Victorian era. However, the work is appealing in its depiction of the ill child’s expression; the placement of the figures is visually interesting. Millais admired the paintings of James McNeill Whistler, whose influence he acknowledged. The work is in a private collection. (Ann Arvin, Cover Art Editor)