A MAJOR landscape by the Southampton-born artist John Everett Millais has been donated to the Tate by one of his great-grandsons.

The 1890 work, Dew-Drenched Furze, pictured, is regarded as one of the great achievements of his later art.

It will go on show at London’s Tate Britain today as part of the BP British Art Displays 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, Tate’s first benefactor.

Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, said: “This exquisite work is one of the finest examples of Millais’ late landscapes.”

Millais, who was born in Southampton in 1829, set out to capture the wintry morning sun streaming through a clearing. The artist’s great-grandson, Geoffroy Millais, is donating the work.