Ophelia Painting Analysis

771 Words2 Pages

Ophelia, 1866 in the metropolitan museum is a print copy of the original painting and etching on chine colle done by Millais for the royal academy exhibition in 1852. The painting shows the prince’s rejected lover named Ophelia, who had fallen into a brook while she had went to gather wildflowers. When I first came across the artwork I didn’t quite see a woman dead in a lake like the description was trying to convey. I couldn’t help but notice the positions of her arms as though they were limp, they were not floating straight out like a dead body would be. Her wrists appearing above water, her hands cupped as though her muscles in them were still functional to keep them that way. It’s possible with that factor alone this painting has some idealized elements. In general the painting made me think she had just fallen in showing a sense of hopelessness especially with her facial expression.

I chose this particular work because after doing a full walk threw around the entire museum it was one of the few pieces to truly have my full attention. At first glance I thought it was a photograph, a bit old fashioned but a beautifully pieced and posed black and white image. As a photography major I just felt instantly inspired by the image. However while reading the description on the piece I realized it was a painting combined of different styles like etching and stippling. That only piqued my interest even more with this picture, it looked so realistic with all the details and even the lights and shadows, I loved it. It was hard to decipher whether it was a painting or not considering there was no obvious brush strokes visible.

This artwork was placed on its own wall, centered in the exhibit. It was also one of the largest pieces as yo...

... middle of paper ...

... in a bathtub to complete the composition.”. The purpose behind this artwork was to challenge himself and trying something completely new regardless of what the viewers of that time period would think, in which at that time had the audience a bit unsettled since it was something so uncommon. It took another artist by the name of James Stephenson to make a print of this piece in 1866 for viewers to admire all the hard work that went into it. I would have never guessed even with the era that this was piece was created that it was done in two separate parts and took months to finalize. To basically paint a forest then edit in a model that you painted while she was laying in a tub shows such a high level of creativity in making sure he accurately captures what a person should appear like while afloat in water and what the water surrounding the body would appear like.

More about Ophelia Painting Analysis

Open Document