A PAINTING by Southampton-born artist Sir John Everett Millais went on permanent display at the Tate Gallery in London today after it was given to the nation in lieu of £4.2 million tax.

Mariana - completed in 1851 - was unveiled by Culture Secretary Chris Smith. The work depicts the lovelorn and abandoned heroine of Shakespeare's play Measure For Measure and Tennyson's poem Mariana.

The work was given to the nation by the executors of Lord Sherfield in lieu of £4.2 million in inheritance tax, although it could be worth more.

Its heroine was left by her betrothed, Angelo, on the pre-text that she had been unfaithful. In Shake-speare's play they are re-united by guile, but Tennyson and Millais leave her plight unresolved.

Tate senior curator Robin Hamlyn said: "It is a beautiful painting by the leading member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. It is a lovely image and I think the public will be drawn to it."

Millais, was born in Portland Street, Southampton, on June 8, 1829, and maintained a terrific output embracing hundreds of historical and Biblical scenes.

His most famous works are The Boyhood of Raleigh, The Princes in the Tower and Bubbles, used in an advertising campaign by the makers of Pears soap.

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