Sir John Everett Millais, *Ophelia*, 1851-1852. 51.9” x 76.2” oil painting. https://www.tate-images.com/preview.asp?image=N01506&wwwflag=3&imagepos=2.

John Everett Millais' 1852 painting Ophelia remains one of the most iconic works of British art. His masterful Pre-Raphaelite rendering of Shakespeare's doomed tragic heroine encapsulates themes of female agency, madness, and heartbreak with vivid naturalism. In this lush visual interpretation of Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet, Millais elevates Ophelia from a secondary figure into the primary subject. Each delicate flower and bend of the riverbank works in symbolic harmony to immerse viewers in her tragic demise. Millais pioneered new techniques to capture Ophelia’s submerged form with sensitivity and astonishing attention to detail. The resulting painting takes on allegorical significance, transcending its literary origins through raw poetic force. Ophelia represents a critical masterwork at the intersection of Shakespeare, 19th century painting, and Pre-Raphaelite ideals. By tapping into the era's interest in tragic heroines, Millais invested classic themes with intimate psychological depth and transformed Ophelia’s death into an iconic vision that fundamentally shaped subsequent Symbolist art.

The Painting

Ophelia is an oil painting completed by British artist Sir John Everett Millais in 1851-1852. It depicts Shakespeare's character Ophelia from Hamlet floating in a river just before her death by drowning. The setting is a densely lush, overgrown riverbank. Ophelia lays half-submerged in the water, her dress buoying her up as she grasps flowering vines spilling into the river. Her face is serene, with eyes closed and mouth slightly open. The 19-year old model, Elizabeth Siddal, posed over multiple months lying in a full bathtub as Millais painted en plein air.

Sir John Everett Millais, Study of Elizabeth Siddal for Ophelia. Wikimedia.

The scene appears pristinely untouched by human hands. A bevy of symbolic flowers as described in Shakespeare’s text are meticulously rendered. Ophelia collected these before her ambiguous demise at the hand of a broken bough overhanging the water. Shafts of light pierce through the trees, sparkling on the water and illuminating her in an ethereal glow. Millais achieves astounding realism through his Pre-Raphaelite attention to every natural detail.

The Artist

Sir John Everett Millais was a British painter and illustrator born in Southampton in 1829. In 1848, he co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood alongside Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. This avant-garde group rejected the dominating academic painting in favor of a return to medieval ideals and naturalistic observation.

Sir John Everett Millais, Self Portrait, 1881. oil on canvas. Uffizi Gallery. Image from Art Renewal Center.

Millais quickly became a leading figure of the movement. He departed from tradition in favor of reviving complex Medieval compositions, vibrant colors, and an almost photographic dedication to accurately representing nature. Ophelia marked a turning point in his stylistic development towards a more Symbolist approach. However, he remained aligned with Pre-Raphaelite principles focused on establishing a new sincerity and poetic depth in British art.

Later in life, Millais’ aesthetic evolved towards a more mainstream approach as he gained commercial success. Queen Victoria named him Baronet in 1885 for his contributions to British art. When he died in 1896, Millais was one of the most acclaimed painters of his generation, praised for his originality and technical mastery. Ophelia is considered among his greatest masterworks.

Literary Origins

The imagery in Ophelia directly references Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Hamlet, believed to be written between 1599 and 1601. Ophelia appears as the daughter of Polonius and love interest of Prince Hamlet. After Hamlet accidentally kills her father, Ophelia slowly loses her grip on sanity. She wanders the palace singing nonsensical songs and handing out symbolic flowers described in Act IV, Scene V.

Later, a weeping Queen Gertrude relays news of Ophelia’s ambiguous death by drowning amid willow branches along a brook. Women scatter flowers on the bank in remembrance. Ophelia’s garland of flora from the play, including rosemary, pansies, fennel, daisies, and violets, surround her floating corpse.

By fixating on her death scene, Millais elevates Ophelia from a secondary figure in Hamlet to the primary subject. Her demise encapsulates complex themes of female agency, madness, and the heartbreak born from Hamlet’s feigned and real insanity. Millais taps into 19th century interest in Shakespeare’s tragic heroines while also putting an intimate, human face to Ophelia’s suffering.

Elizabeth Siddal

Millais found the perfect muse for Ophelia in Elizabeth Siddal, a 19-year-old woman with vivid red hair who epitomized the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of ethereal beauty. To paint Ophelia convincingly, Millais posed Siddal for long, grueling hours in a full antique bathtub in his studio, leaving the poor model shivering and nearly contracting pneumonia - her father threatened the artist, after she contracted a severe cold, with legal action until he agreed to pay her doctors bills. Yet Siddal’s commitment resulted in Millais’ ability to capture Ophelia’s floating corpse with sensitivity and realism. After these studio sessions, Millais completed the intricate floral and landscape details en plein air along the Hogsmill River over four months in 1851, taking scientific care to accurately render each plant per Pre-Raphaelite principles.

The river itself takes on symbolic meaning, transitioning Ophelia from life into death. Her eyes gaze skyward, arms opened and body given over to nature’s entwining embrace. Millais found profound inspiration in the surrounding wilderness, stating “It is a wild place...where nearly all the weeds growing there are made into garlands by the country people.” This meticulous observation brings vivid life to Ophelia’s floral tributes.

Beyond Ophelia, Siddal emerged as the primary muse and model for other seminal Pre-Raphaelite works, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Beata Beatrix. Her likeness became synonymous with Dante’s beloved Beatrice and the idealized beauty of the movement. Her ethereal beauty epitomized the Pre-Raphaelite ideal. Sadly, like Ophelia, Siddal succumbed to an early death in 1862 at just 32 years old.

Symbolism

Millais infuses Ophelia with symbolic meaning through his inclusion of specific flowers described in Hamlet’s text:

“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 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.”

Each bloom she gathered takes on allegorical significance:

Roses - Near Ophelia’s cheeks and dress, may allude to her brother Laetres calling her ‘rose of May’. Also, a symbol of love and beauty.
Willow - The willow tree that Ophelia floats under could symbolize grief, mourning, and forsaken love. Willows are associated with sadness in folklore.
Buttercups - Symbol of ingratitude or infantilism.
Nettles - Signify pain.
Purple Lythrum - Shakespeare’s “fingers of the dead”.
Daisy - Near the right hand, symbolize innocence.
Violet - Faithfulness/early death
Queen of the Forest Filipendula - Futility of Ophelia’s death.
Poppies - Grief.
Forget-me-nots - Fidelity
Decaying Flowers - Though beautiful, the flowers contain symbols of decay, underscoring Ophelia's doomed mortality.

The prominent red poppies foreshadow Ophelia’s death, given their long association with sleep and mortality. Floating amid these carefully selected flowers, Ophelia becomes a coded, silent messenger. Millais further incorporated color symbolism, using white for purity and green for life and rebirth.

Some further symbolism present in the painting other than the immaculate use of flower and plants:

The River - Rivers often symbolize the transition between life and death. Ophelia floats between the two realms, with the living world on one bank and the afterlife on the other.
White Dress - Ophelia's pristine white dress symbolizes innocence and purity. White is often associated with virginity and grace. Her finery sinking into muddy oblivion juxtaposes courtly civility succumbing to raw nature. This underscores Hamlet’s commentary on “sullied flesh.”
Lighting - The luminous, hazy quality of light in the painting evokes ethereal and heavenly themes. Ophelia appears bathed in divine light as she passes.
Pose - Ophelia’s open pose references religious imagery of saints and the Virgin Mary, equating her death to a Christian parable and connections to sacrificial themes.
Water - The distorting effect of the water symbolizes the distortions of madness that Ophelia succumbs to. The water also represents the unconscious mind.

By blending nature, religion, folklore, and literature, Ophelia’s death transcends into an iconic, allegorical vision.

Reception & Significance

When first exhibited in 1852, Ophelia immediately became one of Millais’ most celebrated and controversial works for its radical style and tragic eroticism. Critics condemned the portrayal of suicide and sexuality. But defenders saw it as a masterful, sensitively poetic representation of Shakespeare’s heroine. It quickly became one of England’s most iconic paintings.

Ophelia is exceptional in its vivid naturalism and emotive subject matter. Millais pioneered new techniques to capture Siddal’s submerged form through the distorting ripples of water. The luminous details make Ophelia’s death feel hauntingly real. Each petal and leaf is a labor of love. As a legendary Pre-Raphaelite painting, Ophelia fundamentally influenced subsequent 19th century Symbolist art. Millais invested a classic literary death scene with such aesthetic sensitivity and psychological intimacy that it transcended into the realm of masterpiece.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks look into Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais! I would love to hear what other paintings you would like me to do a ‘Behind the Painting’ on - comment it down below!

Behind the Painting: Ophelia