This painting is based on a poem by John Keats. Isabella,the girl on the left, has fallen in love with Lorenzo, a man her brothers have hired. Lorenzo sits to her right and shares a blood red orange with Isabella. In the poem, the brothers find out about that Isabella is in love with Lorenzo and kill him. They lie to Isabella and tell her that he is on a trip. Days go by, and he does not return, until one night, he comes to her in a dream and tells her that he has been killed by her brothers and where to find her body. Fearing her brothers, Isabella leaves at night to go find the body, which she decapitates and brings home. She places Lorenzo's head in a pot, covers it with dirt, plants basil in the pot, and waters the basil with her tears. Her brothers take the pot away and discover that it is Lorenzo's head and they destroy it, leaving Isabella to die of a broken heart.
Millais has placed Isabella and Lorenzo at a table with her brothers. Cruelty is evident from the violent gesture to the dog. There are potted plants growing on balcony, symbols of what is to become of Lorenzo. This was one of the very first Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood paintings shone. The letters PRB are inscribed on Isabella's bench and again by Millais' signature.
