| Artist | John Everett Millais |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851 |
| Type | Oil on wood (mahogany) |
| Dimensions | 59.7 cm × 49.5 cm (23.5 in × 19.5 in) |
| Location | Tate |
Mariana is an 1851 oil-on-wood painting by John Everett Millais. The image is based on the solitary Mariana from William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, written between 1601 and 1606. In the play, Mariana was to be married, but was rejected when her dowry was lost in a shipwreck. The painting is regarded as an example of Millais' "precision, attention to detail, and stellar ability as a colorist".[1]
When it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851, the display caption contained lines from Tennyson's "Mariana" (1830):
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,'
I would that I were dead!'