Vanessa (Millais painting) Vanessa (Millais painting) Vanessa (1868) is a painting by John Everett Millais in Sudley House, Liverpool. It is a fancy portrait depicting Jonathan Swift's close friend and correspondent Esther Vanhomrigh (1688-1723), who was known by that nickname, which Swift himself invented for her. "Vanessa" represents a major departure in Millais's art because he abandons fully for the first time the detailed finish that was still to be seen in "Waking" and "Sleeping", exhibited in the previous year. Influenced by the work of Diego Velázquez and Joshua Reynolds, Millais paints with dramatic, visible brush strokes in vivid colours, creating what has
Invented (album) a bit by the numbers." Jonathan Keefe of "Slant" magazine gave the album two-and-a-half out of five stars and bemoaned its mastering, stating, "Unfortunately, "Invented" is yet another album to have lost the so-called loudness war. Every element of the album, from the lead guitars right down to the female harmony vocals on the title track, is pitched to be as loud as everything else, and the result is suffocating." Ash Dosanjh of "NME" said that the album "certainly doesn't veer very far from their past emotional sensibilities." Released to favourable reviews, "Invented" sold 34,594 units in the United States