Friday, November 17, 2017

John Everett Millais' Ophelia

As you would expect for a work so influential, there are many artistic depictions inspired by Hamlet, and one of the most famous is British painter John Everett Millais' painting Ophelia, which depicts Ophelia right before her drowning. Here is a picture of the painting:


The picture shows an idealized Ophelia right before she dies, surrounded by beautiful (and realistic) natural surroundings. Some of its features such as the flowers she is holding draws from Gertrude's speech about how Ophelia died. Some critics have compared Ophelia's pose in the painting to classical depictions of saints and martyrs, which is a kind of interesting way to idealize Ophelia as a character.

Notably, this painting is often held up as one of the most famous examples of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood style of painting. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters who rejected the art coming after Renaissance painter Raphael, who was representative of the style promoted by the Royal Academy. The influential group criticized other artists of the time, such as genre artists and more famous painters like Joshua Reynolds. John Everett Millais was one of the 3 co-founders of the Brotherhood and Ophelia has many of the typical elements of the Brotherhood's work, especially its realism particularly in its depiction of nature. This has made Ophelia one of the most famous artistic depictions of something from Hamlet.

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