VII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2015

It is Queen Gertrude's description of Ophelia's death in Hamlet Act IV, which is the inspiration for Millais painting. Unlike most other contemporary paintings based on Shakespearian themes, Millais Ophelia is neither tableau vivant, nor is it particularly dramatic. Everything is relegated to the scintillating natural details of the scene. They form a real indent of the painting and stand out like silk embroidery from the bed of weeds and the grassy water plants in which the subject floats. Ophelia, driven insane by the murder of her father and by her lover, Hamlet, is portrayed singing in her madness as she drowns.

Millais began working on the painting in the summer of 1851, painting the river and background by the river Ewell near Kingston-Upon-Thames. The outdoor location caused him some trouble. «I sit tailor-fashion', he wrote 'under an umbrella throwing a shadow scarcely larger than a half-penny for eleven hours, with a child's mug within reach to satisfy my thirst from the running stream beside me, I am also in danger of being blown by the wind into the water, and becoming intimate with the feelings of Ophelia when that lady sank to muddy death.»

His model of Ophelia, Elizabeth Siddall also suffered fleshy mortifications as she sat for the picture. The painting was completed in London during the following winter and Miss Siddall had to lie in a bath of water, heated by oil lamps from below. The cold she caught as a result brought a complaint against Millais from Miss Siddalls father, with the threat for an action of £50 damages. The action was settled, the resulting painting considered to posess the best likeness ever painted of Miss Siddall.ⁱ

The plants, most of which have symbolic significance, were depicted with painstaking botanical detail. The roses near Ophelia's cheek and dress, and the field rose on the bank, may allude to her brother Laertes calling her 'rose of May'. The willow, nettle and daisy are associated with forsaken love, pain, and innocence. Pansies refer to love in vain. Violets, which Ophelia wears in a chain around her neck, stand for faithfulness, chastity or death of the young, any of which meanings could apply here. The poppy signifies death. Forget-me-nots float in the water. Millais wrote to Thomas Combe in March 1852: «Today I have purchased a really splendid lady's ancient dress - all flowered over in silver embroidery - and I am going to paint it for "Ophelia". You may imagine it is something rather good when I tell you it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds» (J.G. Millais I, p.162).

Ophelia was part of the original Henry Tate gift to the Tate Gallery.ⁱⁱ

i^ Millais Ophelia. Behind the painting //http://www.cazbo.co.uk/ThePainting/Aboutthepainting/AboutthePainting.htm

ii^ Riggs Terry. Summary/Sir John Everett Millais, Bt Ophelia 1851//http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506/text-summary