Author Topic: Ophelia  (Read 2100 times)

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Ophelia
« on: October 12, 2013, 05:52:36 PM »
From Wikipedia





Artist   John Everett Millais
Year   1851–1852
Type   Oil on canvas
Dimensions   76.2 cm × 111.8 cm (30.0 in × 44.0 in)
Location   Tate Britain, London

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2013, 05:53:34 PM »
Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. Currently held in the Tate Britain in London, it depicts Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark.

The work was not widely regarded when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, but has since come to be admired for its beauty and its accurate depiction of a natural landscape. Ophelia has been estimated to have a market value of around £30 million, or just under $47 million.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2013, 05:54:42 PM »
Theme and elements

The painting depicts Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of the play in a speech by Queen Gertrude.

The episode depicted is not seen onstage, but exists only in Gertrude's description. Ophelia has fallen into the river from a tree overhanging it, while gathering flowers. She lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger ("incapable of her own distress"). Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to temporarily stay afloat ("Her clothes spread wide, / And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up."). But eventually, "her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay" down "to muddy death."

Ophelia's death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2013, 05:56:03 PM »
Ophelia's pose—her open arms and upwards gaze—also resembles traditional portrayals of saints or martyrs, but has also been interpreted as erotic.

The painting is known for its depiction of the detailed flora of the river and the riverbank, stressing the patterns of growth and decay in a natural ecosystem. Despite its nominal Danish setting, the landscape has come to be seen as quintessentially English. "Ophelia" was painted along the banks of the Hogsmill River in Surrey, near Tolworth, Greater London. Barbara Webb, a resident of nearby Old Malden, devoted much time to finding the exact placement of the picture, and according to her research, the scene is located at Six Acre Meadow, alongside Church Road, Old Malden.[3] Millais Road is now nearby. Millais' close colleague William Holman Hunt was at the time working on his The Hireling Shepherd nearby.

The flowers shown floating on the river were chosen to correspond with Shakespeare's description of Ophelia's garland. They also reflect the Victorian interest in the "language of flowers", according to which each flower carries a symbolic meaning. The prominent red poppy—not mentioned by Shakespeare's description of the scene—represents sleep and death.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2013, 05:57:54 PM »

The alleged skull in the foliage

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2013, 05:58:42 PM »
It has often been claimed that a human skull is depicted in the foliage in the riverbank at the right, but there is no extant evidence that this was intended by Millais.[6] However a naturally formed skull shape is indisputably used by Hunt in his companion piece The Hireling Shepherd, which depicts a death's head moth.

At an early stage in the painting's creation, Millais painted a water vole—which an assistant had fished out of the Hogsmill—paddling next to Ophelia. In December 1851, he showed the unfinished painting to Holman Hunt's relatives. He recorded in his diary, "Hunt's uncle and aunt came, both of whom understood most gratifyingly every object except my water rat. The male relation, when invited to guess at it, eagerly pronounced it to be a hare. Perceiving by our smiles that he had made a mistake, a rabbit was then hazarded. After which I have a faint recollection of a dog or a cat being mentioned." Millais painted the water vole out of the final picture, although a rough sketch of it still exists in an upper corner of the canvas hidden by its frame.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2013, 06:00:33 PM »
Painting process


Millais produced Ophelia in two separate stages: He first painted the landscape, and secondly the figure of Ophelia. Having found a suitable setting for the picture, Millais remained on the banks of the Hogsmill River in Ewell — within a literal stone's throw of where fellow Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt painted The Light of the World — for up to 11 hours a day, six days a week, over a five-month period in 1851.

This allowed him to accurately depict the natural scene before him. Millais encountered various difficulties during the painting process. He wrote in a letter to a friend, "The flies of Surrey are more muscular, and have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh. I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay ... and am also in danger of being blown by the wind into the water. Certainly the painting of a picture under such circumstances would be greater punishment to a murderer than hanging." By November 1851, the weather had turned windy and snowy. Millais oversaw the building of a hut "made of four hurdles,[8] like a sentry-box, covered outside with straw". According to Millais, sitting inside the hut made him feel like Robinson Crusoe. William Holman Hunt was so impressed by the hut that he had an identical one built for himself.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2013, 06:02:29 PM »

An 1854 self-portrait by Elizabeth Siddal, who acted as Millais' model for Ophelia


Ophelia was modelled by artist and muse Elizabeth Siddal, then 19 years old. Millais had Siddal lie fully clothed in a full bathtub in his studio at 7 Gower Street in London. As it was now winter, he placed oil lamps under the tub to warm the water, but was so intent on his work that he allowed them to go out. As a result, Siddal caught a severe cold, and her father later sent Millais a letter demanding £50 for medical expenses. According to Millais' son, he eventually accepted a lower sum.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2013, 06:03:45 PM »
Reception

When Ophelia was first publicly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1852, it was not universally acclaimed. A critic in The Times wrote that "there must be something strangely perverse in an imagination which souses Ophelia in a weedy ditch, and robs the drowning struggle of that lovelorn maiden of all pathos and beauty", while a further review in the same newspaper said that "Mr. Millais's Ophelia in her pool ... makes us think of a dairymaid in a frolic". Even the great art critic John Ruskin, an avid supporter of Millais, while finding the technique of the painting "exquisite", expressed doubts about the decision to set it in a Surrey landscape and asked, "Why the mischief should you not paint pure nature, and not that rascally wirefenced garden-rolled-nursery-maid's paradise?"

In the 20th century, the painting was championed by surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. In an article published in a 1936 journal, he wrote, "How could Salvador Dalí fail to be dazzled by the flagrant surrealism of English Pre-Raphaelitism. The Pre-Raphaelite painters bring us radiant women who are, at the same time, the most desirable and most frightening that exist." In 1906, Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki called the painting "a thing of considerable beauty" in one of his novels; since then, the painting has been highly popular in Japan. It was exhibited in Tokyo in 1998 and travelled there again in 2008.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2013, 06:05:06 PM »
In popular culture

The painting has been widely referenced and pastiched in art, film and photography.

Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet (1948) based its portrayal of Ophelia's death on the painting.

In Ken Russell's 1967 television biopic of Rossetti, Dante's Inferno, composition is used to symbolise Elizabeth Siddal's own death.

The video of Nick Cave's song "Where the Wild Roses Grow" depicts Kylie Minogue mimicking the pose of the image.

The cover of The Wind Kissed Pictures by Christian Death features the painting on the cover.

The song of Tori Amos 'Ophelia' was inspired by this painting and by the story of Shakespeare.

It was used in an episode of Season One in Cold Case.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2013, 06:05:52 PM »
Provenance and valuation

Ophelia was purchased from Millais on 10 December 1851 by the art dealer Henry Farrer for 300 guineas. Farrer sold the painting to B.G. Windus, an avid collector of Pre-Raphaelite art, who sold it on in 1862 for 748 guineas. The painting is presently held at Tate Britain, London, and is valued by experts at least £30 million.


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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2013, 08:21:56 PM »
Ten things you never knew about Ophelia
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
by Benjamin Secher
12:01AM BST 22 Sep 2007


Ophelia, John Everett Millais’s bewitching depiction of Hamlet’s sweetheart sinking to a watery death, is one of the most familiar images in art.

It has adorned the walls of the Tate for most of the 110 years since the gallery opened, attracting millions of viewers to admire its forensic detail – and buy the postcard, which remains a runaway bestseller in the gallery shops.

As the painting takes centre stage in a new Tate exhibition of Millais’s work, here’s an alternative guide to some of the lesser known facts about his masterpiece.

1 Millais suffered for his art

After identifying a suitably bucolic setting for his picture, Millais perched at his easel on the banks of the Hogsmill River in Surrey for up to 11 hours a day, six days a week throughout a five-month period in 1851. He was determined to capture with unprecedented accuracy the natural scene before his eyes – but such devotion to his art came at a cost.

“The flies of Surrey are more muscular, and have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh,” he grumbled in a letter to a friend.

“I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay… and am also in danger of being blown by the wind into the water. Certainly the painting of a picture under such circumstances would be greater punishment to a murderer than hanging.”

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2013, 08:23:10 PM »
2 Desperate times called for desperate measures

When November 1851 brought bitter winds and snow to the Surrey countryside, Millais decided he needed some kind of shelter and oversaw the building of a peculiar hut “made of four hurdles, like a sentry-box, covered outside with straw”.

Sitting in it, with his paints (probably stored in pig bladder cases – collapsible tubes had only recently been invented and were still scarce) and with stray pieces of straw whistling around his ears made him feel, he said, like Robinson Crusoe.

His friend and fellow Pre-Raphaelite artist, William Holman Hunt, who was simultaneously painting his own great work The Hireling Shepherd a little along the river, was so taken with Millais’s hut that he had an identical structure built for himself.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2013, 08:24:27 PM »
3 An animal vanished during the making of this picture

At an early stage, Millais included a water vole (which an assistant had fished out of the Hogsmill) in his composition, gently paddling alongside the stricken Ophelia. In December 1851, Millais showed the uncompleted painting to relatives of Hunt.

“Hunt’s uncle and aunt came, both of whom understood most gratifyingly every object except my water rat,” he notes in a diary entry of the time.

“The male relation, when invited to guess at it, eagerly pronounced it to be a hare. Perceiving by our smiles that he had made a mistake, a rabbit was next hazarded. After which I have a faint recollection of a dog or a cat being mentioned”.

By the time the painting was unveiled at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1852, the rogue rodent had vanished, although a rough sketch of it can still be found, tucked away in an upper corner of the canvas now concealed by the frame.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2013, 08:25:44 PM »
4 Ophelia caught a cold

Determined to depict Shakespeare’s waterlogged maiden with utmost accuracy, but recognising that the chances of persuading someone to pose in the freezing Hogsmill were distinctly slim, Millais came up with the wheeze of getting his model – the 19-year-old Elizabeth Siddall, future wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti – to lie, fully clothed, in a full bathtub.

Oil lamps were placed underneath the tub to keep the water warm, but when they went out the artist was too engrossed in his work to notice. Lying deathly still in chilly water for hours on end left Siddall with a stinking cold, and Millais with a £50 doctor’s bill.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #15 on: October 12, 2013, 08:27:20 PM »
5 Not everybody fell for Ophelia’s charms

When the painting made its public debut at the Royal Academy in London in 1852, the critics were far from unanimous in their praise.

The Times declared that “there must be something strangely perverse in the imagination which sources Ophelia in a weedy ditch, and robs the drowning struggle of that love-lorn maiden of all pathos and beauty”. Another newspaper objected that “Mr Millais’s Ophelia in her pool?…?makes us think of a dairymaid in a frolic."

And even John Ruskin, a great supporter of Millais, was not altogether kind. Although he found the technique of the painting to be “exquisite”, he expressed grave doubts about Millais’s decision to set it in a Surrey landscape:

“Why the mischief should you not paint pure nature,” he asked, “and not that rascally wirefenced garden-rolled-nursery-maid’s paradise?”

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #16 on: October 12, 2013, 08:28:38 PM »
6 In the 20th century, Salvador Dalí emerged as a surprise champion of the picture

“How could Salvador Dalí fail to be dazzled by the flagrant surrealism of English Pre-Raphaelitism,” wrote the great surrealist in an article published in a 1936 journal, alongside a reproduction of Ophelia.

“The Pre-Raphaelite painters bring us radiant women who are, at the same time, the most desirable and most frightening that exist.”

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2013, 08:31:18 PM »
7 Ophelia is big in Japan

The painting has enjoyed something of a cult following in the Far East since it was immortalised as “a thing of considerable beauty” in a novel by the renowned Japanese novelist Natsume Soseki in 1906. It travelled to Tokyo in 1998 and will return to the city next year when the Millais show transfers there from the Tate.

The Japanese have decided not to use the image of Ophelia on posters in their capital for fear that its romantic power will inspire young women to take their own lives.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #18 on: October 12, 2013, 08:33:32 PM »
8 Millais sold the painting for 300 guineas

Ophelia was bought from the artist on Dec 10, 1851 by art dealer Mr Henry Farrer for 300 guineas.

He sold it on to a keen Pre-Raphaelite collector called Mr B. G. Windus, who then sold it in 1862 for 748 guineas. Millais’s work has continued to increase in value at a phenomenal pace ever since, with Sleeping, his image of a girl asleep in a bed, selling for £2.1 million at auction in 1999. Experts place the current value of Ophelia at at least £30 million.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #19 on: October 12, 2013, 08:35:09 PM »
9 The artist didn’t always seem destined for greatness

Millais’s educational career got off to an inauspicious start when, at the age of four, he was expelled from nursery, after just three days, for biting his teacher’s hand.

Seven years later he redeemed himself – and put his career back on track – by becoming the youngest pupil ever admitted to the Royal Academy school, where he earned the nickname “the child”. In 1885, he became the first artist to become a baronet and by the following year he was exploiting the commercial aspect of his work to earn the modern equivalent of nearly £2 million a year.

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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #20 on: October 12, 2013, 08:36:23 PM »
10 The building where Ophelia was painted still stands

Millais’s studio was on the second floor at 7 Gower Street in London, just around the corner from the British Museum.

A blue plaque today identifies the building as the place where “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848”. But other than that, little evidence remains of its key role in the creation of the nation’s favourite picture.


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Re: Ophelia
« Reply #21 on: October 12, 2013, 08:39:51 PM »
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