Shakespeare's heroine Ophelia placed in the most amazingly painted setting (painted by the Hogsmill stream in Surrey). Elizabeth Siddal posed for this painting wearing an antique brocade gown and laid in a tin bath filled with water. The painting was created in winter with the bath water kept warm using small candles placed underneath the bath... on one ocassion Millais was so ingrosed in his work that all the candles gradually went out and by the time Lizzie was rescued from the water she was numb with cold and on the verge of pneumonia.Like many pre-raphaelite paintings, it is full of imagery. Ophelia, rejected by Hamlet becomes quite insane and dies of a borken heart. She is shown here floating in flower strewn stream oblivious of the tragedy that awaits her and singing in her madness. Surrounded by forget-me-nots, poppies which signify death, pansies for vain love, and violets around her neck represent faithfulness, chastity and death in youth.
It's so decadently dark and decaying, yet full of light and serene beauty that it amazes me it wasn't created in Venice.
