"...Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!
Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye!
They could not in the self-same mansion dwell
Without some stir of heart, some malady;
They could not sit at meals but feel how well
It soothed each to be the other by;
They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep
But to each other dream, and nightly weep..."
Oil on canvas
154.3 x 117.8 cm
Millais’ Isabella (1848-49) was one of the first works produced after the formation of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood, and the first to bear the PRB signature. With its vibrant colours, sharp lines, and borrowed but reworked medieval style, this painting acted as a manifesto.
Millais' painting depicts a scene from John Keats' poem Isabella, or Pot of Basil (1820). The narrative of the poem is encapsulated within this one scene. The sexual tension between Lorenzo and Isabella is rivalled by the aggressive gazes of the brothers. The pot of basil Lorenzo’s head would ultimately sit in looms behind the lovers, in the eye line of the brothers. Every facet of the poem has been adapted into this bright, complex scene.