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Europe 1800 - 1900
Course: Europe 1800 - 1900 > Unit 4
Lesson 2: The Pre-Raphaelites and mid-Victorian art- A Beginner's Guide to the Pre-Raphaelites
- The Aesthetic Movement
- Pre-Raphaelites: Curator's choice - Millais's Isabella
- Sir John Everett Millais, Isabella
- Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
- Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
- Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia
- Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia
- Millais, Ophelia
- Millais, Mariana
- Millais, Mariana
- Millais, Portrait of John Ruskin
- A Portrait of John Ruskin and Masculine Ideals of Dress in the Nineteenth Century
- Sir John Everett Millais, Spring (Apple Blossoms)
- Millais, The Vale of Rest
- Millais, The Vale of Rest
- John Everett Millais, Bubbles
- Hunt, Claudio and Isabella
- Hunt, Claudio and Isabella
- Hunt, Our English Coasts ("Strayed Sheep")
- Hunt, Our English Coasts ("Strayed Sheep")
- Hunt, Our English Coasts
- Hunt, the Awakening Conscience
- Hunt, The Awakening Conscience
- William Holman Hunt, Isabella or the Pot of Basil
- William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott
- William Holman Hunt, The Shadow of Death
- William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat
- Ford Madox Brown, Work
- Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England
- Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England
- Ford Madox Brown, Work
- Pre-Raphaelites: Curator's choice - Ford Madox Brown's 'Work'
- Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini
- Rossetti, Beata Beatrix
- Rossetti, Proserpine
- Wallis, Chatterton
- Wallis, Chatterton
- William Powell Frith, Derby Day
- Dyce's Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th, 1858
- Dyce, Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th, 1858
- Emily Mary Osborn, Nameless and Friendless
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past
- Burne-Jones, The Golden Stairs
- Burne-Jones, The Golden Stairs
- Burne-Jones, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
- Burne-Jones, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
- Sleeping Beauty — but without the Kiss: Burne-Jones and the Briar Rose series
- Burne-Jones, The Depths of the Sea
- Burne-Jones, Hope
- Burne-Jones, Hope
- Sir Edward Burne-Jones, four stained glass windows at Birmingham Cathedral
- Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott
- William Butterfield, All Saints, Margaret Street
- William Morris and Philip Webb, Red House
- Pre-Raphaelites
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Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia
Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-52, oil on canvas, 762 x 1118 mm (Tate Britain, London). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- I read on this website that the model for this portrait lost her health and eventually her life because she got pneumonia from posing in frigid water for a long period of time while the painting was being made. But the website I got it from is a humor website, so I'm not sure to believe it. Is this true? See: http://www.cracked.com/article_20513_6-images-that-ruined-lives-people-they-made-famous_p2.html(6 votes)
- From the author:There are many myths about Elizabeth Siddal out there - have a look at this wikipedia essay and the bibliography. Feminist art historians have done a lot of work in the last decade to sort out myth from fact: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Siddal(8 votes)
- Why the odd shape of this canvas?(5 votes)
- The Pre-Raphaelites admired the Gothic style of Medieval art. Here, the arched shape of the painting echoed Gothic architectural style -- for instance, arched Gothic doorways and windows. This painting was designed to be exhibited in an arched frame and/or mat.(2 votes)
- As John's wife got sick in that position in the bath tub, does she die?(2 votes)
- It wasn't Millais wife, it was the future wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and her name was Elizabeth Siddall - and no, she didn't die from the bathtub experience!(4 votes)
- What are the social and historical circumstances of that period?(4 votes)
- What is Millais rejecting in this painting? What sorts of things does he have to overcome in painting this work?(1 vote)
- Ruskin advised artiststo go to nature with singleness of heart, 0:55rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scoring nothing. 0:58DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: That is that nature 1:01itself has a kind of spiritual power. 1:02And who are artists to mess with God's work? 1:04DR. BETH HARRIS: That's right, but that 1:07was the academic tradition to take from nature 1:08and improve on it and to idealize it. 1:11That was what in fact Reynolds had advised. 1:13That's the foundation of the academic tradition. 1:16DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And so Millais 1:18
•Current transcript segment:is completely rejecting that. 1:19He's going into nature, and he's trying 1:21to be as true to what he sees as possible. 1:23(1 vote)
- Im doing a art ISU for my art class and this video was helpful but i was looking for a video of the painting of "Nymphs finding the Head of Orpheus" i was wondering if anybody here has seen a video documentry on this painting. If you have could you please comment the link.(1 vote)
- Here are a few: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F4XRr1-JqI
https://www.1st-art-gallery.com/John-William-Waterhouse/Nymphs-Finding-The-Head-Of-Orpheus-Study-1900.html
https://www.1st-art-gallery.com/John-William-Waterhouse/Nymphs-Finding-The-Head-Of-Orpheus-(or-Women-With-Water-Jugs).html
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x36hcwr
Do let me know if this helped.(1 vote)
- At, they say that Ophelia was a popular subject in Victorian painting. What other paintings are there of her? 0:18(1 vote)
- You need not listen to whoever "they" who say things may be. Just do what I did, ask Uncle Google to show you "ophelia" and then choose "images". You're right, there are a lot of them.(1 vote)
- What is the dress of ophelia made of?(1 vote)
- It's actually an antique dress that the artist bought specifically for this painting. The fabrics are unknown, but it may be a lace material(1 vote)
- Why does Ophelia seem to drown herself in such a calm, shallow-looking river. It barely even looks like a river it is so small.(0 votes)
- she has gone a little mad, and probably isn't thinking straight.(2 votes)
Video transcript
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We're
in the Tate Britain, and we're looking at John
Everett Millais' Ophelia. This is the quintessential
Victorian and quintessential Pre-Raphaelite painting. DR. BETH HARRIS: It is, and the
Victorians painted Shakespeare quite a lot. And they even painted
Ophelia quite a lot. But this is the painting
that everybody remembers. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: It's
that moment after Hamlet has murdered Ophelia's
father, and she has let herself
fall into this river and is letting herself drown. DR. BETH HARRIS: Well, she
goes mad after Hamlet murders her father and allows
herself to drown. And Shakespeare describes
the place where that happens. And he describes the
flowers and the willow tree, and Millais picks
up on that interest in the botanical setting
and expands on it. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Well,
the botanical specificity, this is an artist who's really
taking Ruskin seriously. DR. BETH HARRIS:
Ruskin advised artists to go to nature with
singleness of heart, rejecting nothing, selecting
nothing, and scoring nothing. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
That is that nature itself has a kind
of spiritual power. And who are artists to
mess with God's work? DR. BETH HARRIS:
That's right, but that was the academic tradition
to take from nature and improve on it
and to idealize it. That was what in fact
Reynolds had advised. That's the foundation of
the academic tradition. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And so Millais is completely rejecting that. He's going into
nature, and he's trying to be as true to what
he sees as possible. It's interesting, because when
we think of painting plein air, that is when we
think of painting outside, we often think of late 19th
century French painting. We think of the Impressionists. But of course, the
Pre-Raphaelites in England were taking this
seriously mid-century. DR. BETH HARRIS:
Millais found a spot that was very much like the
one that Shakespeare described. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: But it's not
as picturesque as it sounds. Painting outside is full of
frustrations and difficulties. You have insects. You have weather variations. You have animals. And Millais speaks about
this with a wonderful sense of sarcasm in a
letter that he wrote. DR. BETH HARRIS: Millais wrote,
"I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate
for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay. I am also in danger of
being blown by the wind into the water and becoming
intimate with the feelings of Ophelia when that lady
sank to muddy death." This is the funniest
part, I think. "There are two swans
who not a little add to my misery by
persisting in watching me from the exact spot
I wish to paint. My sudden perilous evolutions
on the extreme bank to persuade them to
evacuate their position have the effect of
entirely deranging my temper, my pictures,
brushes, and palette. Certainly, the
painting of a picture under such circumstances
would be a greater punishment for a murderer than a hanging." DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: So
we have Millais really clearly at the end of his rope
trying to paint this image. DR. BETH HARRIS: Yeah. The Pre-Raphaelites often show
us images of solitary women expressing feelings of
longing, and frustration, and in this case madness. The model for this is the woman
who would become Rosetti's wife and who was his model and
muse, Elizabeth Siddal. And she apparently posed
for him in a bathtub that they kept warm
with some candles underneath, although
she did get sick, because the water did
eventually get cold. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
I know he was quite proud of the dress that he
had bought for her to wear, which was already an antique
that was embroidered heavily with silver and is
beautifully rendered here as it floats and almost
becomes like the water weeds that we see around. In fact, this painting was
really praised in its day for being perhaps the
most faithful to nature in terms of its
botanical accuracy. And we can see clearly
not only a large willow tree that has fallen
and then has regrown. And it's actually a
wonderful to look at the way that those upturned roots mimic
the pose of Ophelia's arms. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
we see lots of flowers that we can identify
very specifically. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And
that have symbolic purpose. DR. BETH HARRIS: Right, we see
forget-me-nots and poppies, which are a symbol of
death, and violets, which are a symbol
of faithfulness. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: In fact,
she's got a chain of violets around her neck, which
I think comes directly from the Shakespearean play. DR. BETH HARRIS: So the symbolic
meaning of all of the flowers would have been understood
by the Victorian public. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And interestingly, it links all the way back to
Shakespeare, who, as you said, is very specific
as well about some of the flowers
that are mentioned. DR. BETH HARRIS: So Ophelia
floats with her palms upturned. She's not dead yet. Her eyes are open, and she seems
to be floating down the river. But there are lovely passages
when you look closely not only at the flowers
but especially in the lower left where we see the light
moving through those reeds that are growing up in the water. The intensity of the
colors and the specificity, both of those things,
I think, would have been really new
and rather shocking to the Victorian public. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Well, part of that was achieved because the
Pre-Raphaelites rejected the traditional
mode of painting. That is painting
on a dark ground. And so instead, they painted
on a brilliant white ground. And some of that luminosity
really comes through. In addition, some
of these artists actually painted not
on a dry white ground, but on a ground
that was still wet, which meant that that white
is picked up by the colors and really creases this
vivid luminousness. DR. BETH HARRIS: And so
the Pre-Raphaelites really were revolutionary. We love them now, and they
seem very familiar to us. But they seemed
really radical back in the late 1850s and 1850s.