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Ophelia floats in a stream, singing as she drowns, her hands open and her dress spreading on the water among flowers. John Everett Millais painted the riverbank outdoors in Surrey in 1851 and the figure in his London studio, where the model lay for hours in a bath.
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Shakespeare's tragic heroine
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia is the young woman loved by Hamlet. After Hamlet kills her father Polonius, she loses her reason. Queen Gertrude describes how Ophelia, gathering flowers by a stream, fell in when a branch broke, and floated for a while singing, her clothes spread wide, until they grew heavy and pulled her down to her death.
John Everett Millais, a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, painted that moment between life and death in 1851–1852. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to paint nature with absolute truth, in bright colours and sharp detail, as artists before Raphael had done.
Ophelia's face
Ophelia's face is turned upward, her lips parted as she sings, her eyes open and unseeing. Her expression is serene and distant, as if she were already beyond the world. The model was Elizabeth Siddal, a young milliner's assistant who later married the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Detail 1
Singing as she drowns
Ophelia's face floats above the water, her lips parted in song and her eyes open. Her calm expression is both beautiful and unsettling.
The model in the bath
To paint the figure, Millais had Siddal lie in a bath of water in his London studio, kept warm by oil lamps beneath. One day the lamps went out, and Siddal, absorbed in posing, did not complain. She caught a severe cold, and her father demanded that Millais pay the doctor's bills.
The open hands
Ophelia's hands rise out of the water, palms open, in a gesture that suggests both surrender and prayer. It recalls traditional images of saints and martyrs.
Detail 2Open hands
Her hands float palms up, a gesture of surrender and of prayer, as she drifts with the current.
The flowers
Flowers float around Ophelia and grow along the bank, and each has a meaning in the Victorian language of flowers, many of them drawn from Shakespeare's text. The red poppy symbolises death, violets faithfulness and early death, daisies innocence, pansies love in vain, and a garland of violets hangs around her neck. Forget-me-nots grow on the bank.
Detail 3Flowers on the water
Poppies, daisies, pansies and violets float on the water, each a symbol of love, innocence or death.
The riverbank
Millais painted the landscape outdoors, from July to November 1851, beside the Hogsmill River near Ewell in Surrey. He worked for up to eleven hours a day, complaining of flies, wind and curious onlookers. Every leaf, reed and flower was painted from life with extraordinary precision; botanists have identified them all. The willow, nettles and wild roses on the bank are symbols of forsaken love, pain and youth.
Detail 4Wild roses on the bank
Dog roses grow along the bank among the willows and nettles, painted from life with botanical precision.
Detail 5Reeds and the willow
On the left, the willow leans over the water among reeds. Millais painted each blade and leaf as he saw it on the Hogsmill River.
Seeing Ophelia
The painting measures about 76 by 112 centimetres. It belongs to Tate and is shown at Tate Britain in London.
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Who posed for Millais's Ophelia?
Elizabeth Siddal posed for the figure, lying in a bath of water in Millais's studio.
Where was the landscape of Ophelia painted?
Millais painted it outdoors beside the Hogsmill River near Ewell in Surrey in 1851.
What do the flowers in Ophelia mean?
They follow the Victorian language of flowers: poppies for death, violets for faithfulness, daisies for innocence and pansies for love in vain.
Where is Ophelia?
It belongs to Tate and is shown at Tate Britain in London.
Sources and further reading
- Tate, collection notes on Ophelia
- Jason Rosenfeld, John Everett Millais (2012)
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 7
