History of advertising in Britain day and into the 20th century. An advertising tactic that he used was to associate the Pears brand with high culture and quality. Most famously, he used the painting "Bubbles" by John Everett Millais as an advertisement by adding a bar of Pears soap into the foreground. (Millais protested at this alteration of his work, but in vain as Barratt had bought the copyright.) Barratt continued this theme with a series of adverts of well groomed middle-class children, associating Pears with domestic comfort and aspirations of modern cleanliness. Barratt established "Pears Annual" in 1891 as a spin-off magazine which promoted
John Ruskin (painting) Glenfinlas, during which the details of the landscape were painted. The last stages of work on the painting were undertaken in Millais' studio in London. By that time Ruskin's wife Effie had fallen in love with Millais. She left Ruskin and sued him for an annulment of the marriage. She and Millais were married the following year. Millais found it very difficult to be in the same room as Ruskin when he was completing the work in London, calling it "the most hateful task I have ever had to perform". As soon as the portrait was finished he broke off