Ophelia - John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais

Tate Britain, London

20th April 2018

While at Tate Britain, I came across Sir Jonh Everett Millais’s classic painting Ophelia. The artwork represents the death of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamet. Ophelia is driven mad with grief after her father was murdered by her lover, Hamlet which resulted in her falling and drowning to her death.

Many argue that Ophelia’s death was in fact a suicide. It is the eiry and uncanny beauty of the image and the narrative behind it which I would like to replicate in my own work.

The painting has also been widely used as a reference for art, film and photography. “Fire With Fire” a 1986 film, even goes as far as replicating the image as the protaganists meet.