The Order of Release, 1746

The Order of Release, 1746 is an oil painting on canvas by John Everett Millais, painted in 1852–53 and shown at the Royal Academy in 1853; Sir Henry Tate gave it to the Tate Gallery, London, in 1898.

The scene follows the defeat of Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, at Culloden on 16 April 1746, after which many Jacobites were imprisoned. A Highland rebel's wife, holding their small daughter, hands the gaoler a document freeing her husband, who sinks against her with his wounded arm in a sling. Millais seems to have invented the incident, perhaps prompted by the novels of Walter Scott. The picture was first called The Ransom, and early sketches show a purse of money changing hands; the signature on the order is that of Sir Hilgrove Turner, an early supporter of Millais. Tate's catalogue notes the woman's oddly detached expression, which has been read as a hint that she paid for the release with her virtue.

In the Pre-Raphaelite spirit of truth to nature, Millais consulted Robert McIan's book on Highland clans for the tartans: the husband wears Gordon and the child Drummond. Faded primroses dropped by the girl mark the season. A professional model named Westall posed for the man, and Effie Ruskin, then the wife of the critic John Ruskin and later Millais's wife, sat for the woman with her hair darkened. Their friendship began during these sittings. The plain dark background and strong light and shade depart from the dense detail of earlier works such as Ophelia, and the picture is seen as a first step away from his early medievalising style.

The lawyer Joseph Arden bought it for £400 and later also acquired The Rescue, its companion piece. At the 1853 Academy the crowds were so large that a policeman was posted in front of it, and the Illustrated London News wrote that Millais drew more admirers to his corner than all the Academicians together. It was shown again at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The canvas measures 102.9 by 73.7 cm.