The year 1848 a group of artists namely John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti founded a group called Pre-Raphaelites. The group focused on serious significant subject, specifically painting subjects from modern life and literature, oftentimes using historical costumes and highly characterized with paintings directly derived from nature itself. Keen to details and as truthful as possible. An English critic and art theorist John Ruskin in his advice to Modern Painters (1843-1860) played a great role in the Pre-Raphaelites movement. He encouraged artists to “ go to NATURE in all singleness of heart, rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing “ Later in Millais life he had fallen in love with Ruskin’s wife Effie that led to the couple’s divorced) They also developed a technique on the exploitation of pure colours and defined forms. Driven by their objective in achieving “”Truth to Nature “ they deeply believed that reputable ecclesiastical art could only be materialized when the artists is focused in their pursuit in seeking the truth and reality in the natural world.
William Shakespeare a well-known playwright was a common source of inspiration for Victorian painters . John Millais depicted a scene from Shakespeare play Hamlet Act IV, scene VII also known as the speech by Queen Gertrude (Hamlets mother) the queen narrated Ophelia’s death.
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indu'd
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
Prince Hamlet kill King Claudius, in Shakespeare's Hamlet
BACKGROUND OF OPHELIAS FAMILY AND WHY SHE GOT INSANE AND EVENTUALLY DIED.
Although many people lose their lives as a result of their own self-centred wrong-doing, there are others whose deaths are a result of manipulation from the royalty. This is the case of Polonius family
( Ophelia’s father )' But of Polonius' family because their deaths were not the consequence of sinful actions of their own but rather by their innocent involvement in the schemes of Claudius and Hamlet.
The first character to die in Hamlet is Polonius. Although Polonius often acts in a deceitful manner when dealing with Hamlet, the king or queen to discover the nature of Hamlet’s madness only because he is carrying out plans and devises it. Being the king's Lord Chamberlain, it is his duty to obey the king and queen's wishes and it is this loyalty that eventually proves to be fatal for him. An example of how Polonius' innocent involvement with the royalty results in his death can be found at the beginning of Act III, scene iv, when Hamlet stabs him while he is hiding behind the arras in Gertrude's room. This shows how Polonius, a man unaware of the true nature of the situation he is in, is killed by a member of the royalty during the execution of one of their schemes. This makes Polonius' death a tragedy.
The next member of Polonius' family to die is his daughter Ophelia. Ophelia's death is tragic because of her complete innocence in the situation. Some may argue that Polonius deserves his fate because of his deceitfulness in dealing with Hamlet while he is mad, but Ophelia is entirely manipulated and used by Hamlet and the king for their own selfish reasons. An example of how Ophelia is used by Hamlet takes place in Act II, scene i, when Hamlet uses her to convince his family he is mad. Ophelia explains to Polonius how Hamlet has scared her, causing Polonius to draw the conclusion that Hamlet has an "antic disposition". Although this is subject to interpretation and many believe that this is simply Hamlet taking one last look at Ophelia before he becomes engaged in his plan to kill Claudius, the fact that he scares her and does not try to alleviate these fears points to the conclusion that he is simply using her to help word of his madness spread throughout the kingdom via Polonius. In Act III, scene iv, Hamlet kills Polonius while he is hiding behind the arras in the Queen's room. This event causes Ophelia to become insane and leads to her eventual death in a river near the castle in Act IV, scene vii. It can be seen how the combined scheming of Hamlet and Claudius concludes in her death. Claudius' scheme brings about Hamlet's scheme, which brings about the death of Polonius that leads to Ophelia's death. The passing of Ophelia is a tragedy because she does nothing deserving of death, she is merely used for other people's personal gain.
THE MODEL AND MUSE
Elizabeth Siddall a 19 year old enigmatic and sweet young lady, was discovered by Walter Deverell,working with a needle in a milliners, and would later become the wife of one of the great Pre-Raphaelite artist and friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the year 1860( she died of laudanum overdose, she suffered depression in her later years due to Rossetti’s infidelities and after giving birth to a still-born child.). This was the first and the last time that Elizabeth posed for Millais . She was described as “tall” and “slender” with red-coppery hair and bright consumptive complexion.
Millais bought the dress that she wore for Ophelia from a second hand shop for 4 pounds. Stories tells us that tells us that Siddall lie fully clothed in a bath tub full of water in his studio at 7 Grower Street in London. Winter was taking place and Millais placed oil lamps underneath the tub to keep the water warm , but so engrossed on his work that he did not noticed the lamp had gone out .The outcome Siddall caught a severe cold that drove her father furious and later sent Millais a 50 pounds doctors bill.
JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS OPHELIA
Here we behold Ophelia the image of her tragic death as she fell into the stream and eventually drowns was being depicted dramatically , Millais painted these flowers and plants that are being mentioned in Gertrude’s speech ,violets, pansies, daisies, fritillaries, poppies, loosestrife, forget-me-nots, nettles, willows and many more. Nor, apparently typical with Victorian romanticism did he overlook the symbolic meaning of some of the flowers: the pansies signify love in vain or thought poppies signify sleep and death, fritillaries sorrow, violets death in youth and daisies innocence . Another point I can see why he depicted flowers it maybe because a woman also oftentimes was represented as flowers and rosebuds . Millais became so familiar with some of these flowers during the five months that he painted the river scene and established its significance with Ophelia’s death.
The presence of the robin red -breast on the tree seems to be the only witness to this tragic moment ,the stillness of the water lack the sense of liquidity , majority of the colour shadings were purplish, enhancing the gloominess that portends death ,even the trees did not show any movement, it is as if nature had sympathize with her .I noticed certain absurdity however , that her head is afloat contradicting the logic that when a person falls into the water backwards the tendency is that ,the head was the first one to go down , her hands open widely as if submissive to death . Her face was so serene emotionless, motionless, seemingly she was floating in her own world .
Her mouth was open or probably gaping as if she is wanting ,evoke a hint of eroticism , Millais manifested a thorough study about facial expression specifically with Ophelia’s state of madness. An insane person in totality ,she is impassive, no indication of compassion or pity, I deduced that Millais depicted Ophelia as a human being no different from all of us, the common belief that real peace could be attain through death, no more pains, no more heartaches, no more tears.
Millais expresses the poetry and grandeur of nature through Pre-Raphaelite naturalism evident in his depiction of Ophelia ,not only in his figurative, thematic paintings but also in his pure landscape paintings that he created .
Ophelia was revealed in public for the first time in 1852 at the Royal Academy Exhibition together with his other works The Huguenots and The Hireling Shepherd .
Ophelia was purchased from Millais on December 10,1851 by the Art dealer Henry Farren for 300 guineas, and then sold the painting to B.G Windus an avid collector of Pre-Raphaelite arts , who later on sold it in 1862 for 748 guineas
Millais depiction of Ophelia was perhaps one of his best-known painting in the Tate Britain Gallery London ,because of significant factors like saturation of colours, landscape and depiction of nature . Ophelia is valued by art experts for at least ¦350 million .
Reference:
http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/paintings/akim12.html
http://www.wiliqueen.com/ophelia/preraphaelite.html
Detail of Ophelia
© Tate, London 2003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_(painting)
The Art Journal XIV:174
The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, John Guille Millais, vol. 1, 1899, p.162-3).
Biography of Elizabeth Siddall
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