Ophelia
Title
Ophelia
Date Created
1851–52
Creator
John Everett Millais (1829–1896)
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Format
Support: 762 x 1118 mm
Frame: 1105 x 1458 x 145 mm
Subject
The scene depicted is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene vii, in which Ophelia, driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet, drowns herself in a stream:
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 indued 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.
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 indued 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.
Rights
Public domain
Contributor
Tate Britain, London
Omeka record contributed by Jenifer Norwalk.
Date Submitted
November 26, 2016.
Date Modified
January 31, 2017, by LM
Source
Wikimedia Commons
URL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Ophelia_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Files
Collection
Reference
Ophelia, John Everett Millais (1829–1896)
Cite As
John Everett Millais (1829–1896), “Ophelia,” Victorian Artists at Home, accessed October 22, 2026, https://artistsathome.emorydomains.org/items/show/123.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.