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Ophelia
John Everett Millais · Symbolism & Art Nouveau
- Artist
- John Everett Millais (1829–1896)
- Date
- 1851–1852
- Dimensions
- 76.2 x 111.8 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom
Millais’s Ophelia depicts the death of Hamlet’s beloved in Shakespeare’s play: driven mad with grief, she falls into a stream and drifts, singing, until her heavy clothes drag her under. She floats on her back, eyes open, hands raised.
A closer look
Millais painted the riverbank first, spending months by the Hogsmill River in Surrey, recording every leaf, flower and reed with botanical precision. The flowers carry meaning: poppies for death, violets for faithfulness, pansies for love in vain. He then painted Ophelia in his London studio. His model, Elizabeth Siddal, posed for hours in a bath of water kept warm by oil lamps; when the lamps went out unnoticed, she fell seriously ill.
History of the painting
At the Royal Academy in 1852 Ophelia received mixed reviews, but it had already been sold to the dealer Henry Farrer for 300 guineas. It passed through several collections until the sugar magnate Henry Tate bought it, and in 1894 he gave it to the nation as part of the founding collection of his new gallery at Millbank, today's Tate Britain. It is now one of the gallery's most popular works, and it has been lent to exhibitions around the world.
More by John Everett Millais
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- Christ in the House of His Parents 1849
- Isabella 1849
- Autumn Leaves 1856
- Mariana 1851
- The Order of Release 1852
- The Vale of Rest 1858