Millar was born in the middle years of the eighteenth century, c. 1740-1750, probably in Birmingham, of unknown parentage. His name is first documented in the Birmingham Poor Law levy books in 1763. He first exhibited in 1771, at the Society of Artists; after a gap of thirteen years he exhibited again, at the Royal Academy of Arts, in 1784, 1786, 1788, and 1790. He lived in Birmingham and was the leading portrait painter there in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. His range included portraits on the scale of life, portraits in little, and conversation pieces. He may also have painted subject pictures; one Shakespearean scene is recorded. He died in Birmingham on 5 December 1805.
[Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 171.]
Artist Bibliography
1981
Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters. Woodbridge, 1981: 240.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 171.