Ophelia John Everett Millais (1829-1896)

не понимаю... (если в ракурсе времени только).... Офелия??? Нет!

Это, возможно, самая знаменитая картина Джона Эверетта Миллеса (именно так пишется его фамилия), одного из прерафаэлитов (19 век, Англия), которые отличались талантом, неуемной фантазией, способностью соединять несоединимое, и все это ради нового слова в искусстве, каковое они сказали таки. К несчастью, впоследствии (в 20 веке) у них появились подражатели (модернисты разных мастей), которые талантом уже не блещут и околпачивают наивных.

artlover, если беретесь кого-то поучать, хотя бы ознакомьтесь с предметом... Милле!

Невероятная картина – завораживает. Гений!

The painting Ophelia or the Death of Ophelia is a work by the English artist John Everett Millais (also known as Millais). He completed it in 1852. On his canvas, the author depicted the tragic scene from Shakespeares play Hamlet – the death of Ophelia. According to the plot, the unfortunate girl lost her mind and, not waiting for the love of her prince, after the death of her father, she made a wreath for herself and surrendered herself to the will of the waves.

In the painting, we see the agony of the girl. Her face is distorted, her hands are clenched in a spasm, her curls are disheveled, and flowers are scattered on the water. The artist painted the landscape in several parts, gathering it from places in Surrey, on the banks of the Hogsmill River. While working outdoors, the artist sat in an ordinary suit under an umbrella for eleven hours. In general, he was afraid that he would be punished for trespassing on private property, but on the other hand, he was also worried about a huge bull grazing in the field. The wind also relentlessly bothered him, literally blowing him into the river, threatening to give him the sensations of a drowned Ophelia. At the same time, he was tormented by a large number of voracious midges, and Millais also described that, to his misfortune, two swans did not want to swim away from the river, which the artist wanted to depict. In addition, these swans were destroying the vegetation that was supposed to be in the painting.

The image of the main character was painted by the artist already in the studio after he had painted the landscape. This was unusual because usually the main characters were painted first, and the landscape was considered a less important part of the paintings, and painters often left its depiction for later.

The model was a 19-year-old girl named Elizabeth Siddal – a constant muse of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. For the model, Millais bought an antique dress decorated with flower embroidery, which cost him 4 pounds. The posing took place in winter, and it was very cold in the studio. Despite the fact that the water in the aluminum tub where the girl was lying was heated, she caught a severe cold, and her father threatened Millais with a lawsuit, so the artist had to pay for the girls treatment.

The flowers depicted in the painting can be seen in the smallest details. Moreover, no botanist would notice any inaccuracies. These flowers are imbued with symbolism. So, in the Middle Ages, it was believed that daisies symbolized ingratitude, a weeping willow represented unrequited love, nettle shoots – pain, a daisy – a symbol of innocence, roses, of course, mean love, violets and forget-me-nots symbolize fidelity, and Adonis flowers represent grief.

The artist himself, Millais, was a child prodigy; he entered the Art Academy at the age of 11, having prepared for two years. After studying at the academy for 8 years, in 1848 he met the artists Rossetti and Hunt in a gallery. They formed a brotherhood of Pre-Raphaelite artists. The key idea of the Pre-Raphaelite artists is that the depiction of nature in paintings should be as realistic as possible. This explains why the flowers are so carefully rendered.

The young artist was not worried about having no clients, and his paintings were criticized, but after getting married, everything changed. He saw his future wife at a party at the house of his friend John Ruskin. In order to buy housing, Millais began to create paintings that could be sold, but this became his renunciation of his ideals. With his portraits and landscapes, the artist amassed a fortune and even acquired the title of baronet. Later, he was appointed president of the Royal Academy of Arts.