John Everett Millais Ophelia

“Ophelia” by John Everett Millais, was created around 1851, over a five month period. This painting conveys great attention to naturalistic detail. The scene that is depicted in the painting is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which the girl that is portrayed in the painting named Ophelia drowns herself in a stream because of the grief of losing her father, who was murdered by the love of her life, Hamlet. The medium of this painting is oil on canvas, it is a method of painting using pigments distribute in oil. It was commonly used during the middle ages as a binder because of its flexibility. The flexibility of oil made it possible for Millais to create the details of Ophelia's hair floating in the water, and her facial features. Another thing …show more content…
It is said that in order to captivate the image of Ophelia floating in the stream, Millais hired a model, Elizabeth Siddal, who was required to pose in a bath full of water kept warm by lamps underneath. Through this, Millais was able to capture the texture of the water and the lightness of the Ophelia lifeless body. Millas wrote, “I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay. 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.” this shows how much effort he put into completing this image and how emotionally involved he was into it to create the principle of emphasis. “Ophelia” captures the beauty of nature, for example, the large willow tree that was painted onto the canvas as a tree that has fallen, and also a lot of flowers were also painted, such as the violets, poppies, and forget- me- nots. The flowers that were chosen by Millais have symbolic purpose that emphasises Ophelia's death. The Violets are a symbol of faithfulness, the poppies and forget- me-nots are a symbol for death. The symbolic nature of this painting comes directly from Shakespeare's play,