Ophelia

Millais paints Shakespeare's Ophelia drowning amid meticulously observed riverside flowers, each chosen for its symbolic meaning. His model, Elizabeth Siddal, posed in a bathtub for months and fell seriously ill. The Pre-Raphaelite devotion to nature makes every leaf and petal glisten.

Ophelia

John Everett Millais

  • Date1851–52
  • MovementPre-Raphaelite
  • WhereTate Britain, London
  • RegionBritain