Mariana in the South

Mariana in the South is an oil painting on canvas by John William Waterhouse, completed in 1897 and exhibited that year; it measures 114 by 74 cm and is in a private collection.

The subject comes from Tennyson's poem Mariana in the South, which in turn draws on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. In the play Mariana is cast aside by her betrothed, Angelo, after her dowry is lost, and withdraws from the world in grief. Tennyson's heroine prays for the return of her lost love, and Waterhouse illustrates the line describing how, in the liquid mirror, glowed the clear perfection of her face. Abandoned and secluded women of this kind recur in his work, as in The Lady of Shalott of 1888.

Mariana kneels before a tall oval mirror set in a carved wooden stand, her hands raised to her throat and her long auburn hair falling to the floor as she gazes at her reflection. She wears a loose white overgown over a mauve bodice, and opened letters lie scattered on the floor beside her, presumably from Angelo. A candle is fixed to the mirror stand, and a door stands ajar at the back. The black and white tiled floor runs far back into the picture, making the room seem vast and empty and stressing her isolation.

The Victorian Web records H. W. Henderson as its owner in 1897; the Henderson family were steady patrons of Waterhouse in his later career. Waterhouse also painted a larger and more loosely handled version, 134.5 by 86.3 cm, which Art UK describes as a preparatory study; it came to Hammersmith and Fulham Council through the bequest of the collector Cecil French in 1954 and has been shown at Leighton House in London.