A MAJOR landscape by the Southampton-born artist John Everett Millais is being donated to Tate by one of his great-grandsons.
The 1890 work, Dew-Drenched Furze, is regarded as one of the great achievements of his later art.
It will go on show at London's Tate Britain as part of the BP British Art Displays tomorrow to mark the 190th anniversary of Sir Henry Tate's birth.
Painted on site on the Murthly estate in Perthshire, Scotland, the gift also represents an acknowledgement of Millais' friendship with Sir Henry, who was Tate's first benefactor.
Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, said: ''This exquisite work is one of the finest examples of Millais' late landscapes and will significantly enhance Tate's holdings from this important period in his oeuvre.''
Millais, who was born in Southampton in 1829, set out to capture the wintry morning sun streaming through a clearing.
The eye is allowed to wander through a gap in a forest, along bracken, gorse and ferns laden with frost.
The artist's great-grandson, Geoffroy Millais, is donating the work.
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