Artist who had a very short distance to sail, possibly (7)
I believe the answer is:
millais
'artist who had a very' is the definition.
'millais' can be an answer for 'artist' (I've seen this before). I'm unsure of the rest of the definition.
'distance to sail possibly' is the wordplay.
'distance' becomes 'mil' (I have seen 'tiny distance' mean 'mil' so perhaps 'distance' could also mean 'mil').
'possibly' indicates an anagram.
'sail' with letters rearranged gives 'lais'.
'mil'+'lais'='MILLAIS'
'short' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for millais that I've seen before include "founder of brotherhood" , "He painted" , "Pre-Raphaelite artist" , "John Everett -. English painter (Bubbles)" , "John Everett ---, PRB painter" .)