Ophelia, Hamlet, IV-7. Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed in 1851 and 1852 and in the collection of Tate Britain in London.
It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. The work encountered a mixed response when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, but has since come to be admired as one of the most important works of the mid-nineteenth century for its beauty, its accurate depiction of a natural landscape, and its influence on artists from John William Waterhouse and Salvador Dalí to Peter Blake and Ed Ruscha.
The painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude.
The episode depicted is not usually seen onstage, as in Shakespeare's text it exists only in Gertrude's description. Out of her mind with grief, Ophelia has been making garlands of wildflowers.
She climbs into a willow tree overhanging a brook to dangle some from its branches, and a bough breaks beneath her. She lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger. Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to temporarily stay afloat. But eventually, her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay down to muddy death. Ophelia's death has been praised as one of the m
It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. The work encountered a mixed response when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, but has since come to be admired as one of the most important works of the mid-nineteenth century for its beauty, its accurate depiction of a natural landscape, and its influence on artists from John William Waterhouse and Salvador Dalí to Peter Blake and Ed Ruscha.
The painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude.
The episode depicted is not usually seen onstage, as in Shakespeare's text it exists only in Gertrude's description. Out of her mind with grief, Ophelia has been making garlands of wildflowers.
She climbs into a willow tree overhanging a brook to dangle some from its branches, and a bough breaks beneath her. She lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger. Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to temporarily stay afloat. But eventually, her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay down to muddy death. Ophelia's death has been praised as one of the m
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