Mariana in the Moated Grange
Drawing
1850 (drawn)
1850 (drawn)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This is a study for Millais' oil painting Mariana. He exhibited the finished work at the Royal Academy in 1851, and it is now in the collection of Tate Britain (TO7553). The painting - and this sketch - illustrate some lines from Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Mariana’ (1830):
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh note', she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
Tennyson's poem was itself inspired by William Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure. In this drama, Mariana is rejected by her fiancé, Angelo. She retires to a lonely moated grange, where she waits longingly to be reunited with him. Millais' picture shows her standing up from the embroidery that she has been working on to pass the time, and stretching her aching back. The gesture emphasises how long and tiring her lonely vigil has been.
Tennyson was a favourite poet of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. He provided inspiration for a number of their pictures.
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh note', she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
Tennyson's poem was itself inspired by William Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure. In this drama, Mariana is rejected by her fiancé, Angelo. She retires to a lonely moated grange, where she waits longingly to be reunited with him. Millais' picture shows her standing up from the embroidery that she has been working on to pass the time, and stretching her aching back. The gesture emphasises how long and tiring her lonely vigil has been.
Tennyson was a favourite poet of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. He provided inspiration for a number of their pictures.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Mariana in the Moated Grange (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Pen and ink on paper |
| Brief description | Mariana in the Moated Grange, Pen and ink on paper, Sir John Everett Millais, 1850, England |
| Physical description | This is a finished study for the oil painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851. It illustrates a passage by one of the Pre-Raphaelites' favourite contemporary poets, Alfred, Lord Tennyson: She only said, 'My life is dreary - He cometh not' she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary - I would that I were dead'' The poem tells of a rejected woman who has no hope of seeing her lover again, a subject suggested to Tennyson by a character called Mariana in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure who, cast off by Angelo, lives dejected in 'the moated grange', the water around the house symbolising her separation from society. Tennyson's poem is a melancholic lament, and this kind of highly-charged despair was admired and emulated by Millais, as here, and his associates. Self-imprisoned in a gloomy Gothic room, Mariana stretches wearily as she remembers her beloved. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This is a study for Millais' oil painting Mariana. He exhibited the finished work at the Royal Academy in 1851, and it is now in the collection of Tate Britain (TO7553). The painting - and this sketch - illustrate some lines from Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Mariana’ (1830): She only said, 'My life is dreary, He cometh note', she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!' Tennyson's poem was itself inspired by William Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure. In this drama, Mariana is rejected by her fiancé, Angelo. She retires to a lonely moated grange, where she waits longingly to be reunited with him. Millais' picture shows her standing up from the embroidery that she has been working on to pass the time, and stretching her aching back. The gesture emphasises how long and tiring her lonely vigil has been. Tennyson was a favourite poet of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. He provided inspiration for a number of their pictures. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.354-1931 |
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| Record created | December 15, 1999 |
| Record URL |
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