This painting of Ophelia is based on Shakespeare's famous play, Hamlet. In the play Hamlet (Ophelia's lover) accidentally kills her father. Filled with despair, Ophelia drowns herself in a brook surrounded by flowers.
Elizabeth Siddal modeled for this wonderful painting. She was the main muse of the Pre-Rahaelites, she later became the wife of Rossetti.
Millais had Lizzy lay in a tub of water while he painted so he could get the effect just right. There were candles and small oil lamps under the tub to keep the water warm, but they went out and left Lizzy with an illness from which she never quite recovered.
The flowers used in this painting have tremendous meaning. "The willow alludes to forsaken love, as do the pansies which refer to an earlier scene of the play. The violets around Ophelia's neck, symbolic of faithfulness, are also referred to earlier... The nettle and daisy are symbolic of pain and innocence respectively. [ The poppy is symbolic of death] ... On the left of the loosestrife, the meadowsweet represents the futility of her death. Ophelia's sorrow is symbolized by the pheasant's eye and the fritillary floating on the surface of the water... Besides the self-explanatory forget-me-nots, the chiaroscuro (darkness between them) forms a scull referring to Ophelia's death and Hamlet's famous graveyard scene which follows," (Ash plate 12).
This painting of Ophelia is based on Shakespeare's famous play, Hamlet. In the play Hamlet (Ophelia's lover) accidentally kills her father. Filled with despair, Ophelia drowns herself in a brook surrounded by flowers. 