James Millar (c. 1735 – 1805)
• Was an English portrait painter.
• Born in Birmingham.
• Millar is recorded in the town's Poor Law levy books in 1763 but was to become the leading Birmingham portrait painter of the last quarter of the 18th century.
• Subjects of his portraits include John Baskerville, Francis Eginton, John Freeth and the wife of Lunar Society of Birmingham member Thomas Day.
• The Midlands Enlightenment strongly influenced Millar's approach – one of his works depicts allegories of wisdom, and symbols of science and the arts in the shadow of the tower of Birmingham's St. Philip's Church.
• Millar exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists in London between 1771 and 1790.
