OPHELIA

Presentation by Alessandra Zorzetto 4DL

OPHELIA

John Everett Millais

Ophelia is one of the most popular Pre-Raphaeliteworks in the Tate collection. Millais’s image of the tragic death of Ophelia, as she falls into the stream and drowns, is one of the best-known illustrations from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.The Pre-Raphaelites focused on serious and significant subjects. They painted directly from nature itself, as truthfully as possible and with incredible attention to detail.

General introduction

He was born in Southampton, England but raised by a wealthy family native to the small channel island of Jersey. He spent his childhood there and began drawing when he was four years old.He found a secret society called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

1829-1896

John Everett Millais

Ophelia is a character in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. She is driven mad when her father, Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. She dies while still very young, suffering from grief and madness.Things enter through the eyes, the first image The events shown in Millais’s Ophelia are not actually seen on stage. I

OPHELIA'S STORY

Millais’s model was a young woman aged nineteen called Elizabeth Siddall. She was discovered by his friend, Walter Deverell, working in a hat shop.Elizabeth got extremely sick with pneumonia. It was so severe that her parents threatened to take legal action against the artist and forced him to pay for her doctors bills along with her laudanum prescription.

ELISABETH SIDDAL

For such an important painting, Millais only made a few preparatory sketches for Ophelia.

sketches

Most of the flowers in Ophelia are included either because they are mentioned in the play, or for their symbolic value. The flowers are painted from real, individual flowers and Millais shows the dead and broken leaves as well as the flowers in full bloom

Millais’s Ophelia was more detailed than what photography was able to achieve at this time and was a unique way of representing the natural world.

FLOWERS

Millais bought two pieces of canvas for Ophelia from the art materials dealer Mr Charles Roberson on 7 June 1851It is possible that at the beginning of each day Millais would mark out the area to be painted that day by covering it with white paint.

THE CANVAS

Millais was able to buy tubes of paint mixed by art material dealers that he could use straight away.New pigments were developed throughout the nineteenth century. Millais had a wide choice of pigments that came from minerals, precious stones, rocks, vegetables, insects and plants.He painted a layer of lead white underneath a layer of zinc white.

colors

The back of the painting can also show us the history of where the painting has travelled and who owned it. When a painting is loaned to other galleries often a stamp is attached to the back of the canvas. We can see that it used to be the property of the National Gallery.

BACK OF THE PAINTING

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