Singing all the while

~Ophelia by Jo Bradford ~ {click here to view at my Flickr instead}

Today is the birthday of Sir John Everett Millais, co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

He is most famous for his painting of the Shakespearian character, Ophelia, from Hamlet.

Millais' painting depicts the young Ophelia's final tragic moments, as driven to madness after her father, Polonius, is murdered by her boyfriend, Hamlet, she falls into the river while picking flowers and slowly drowns singing all the while.

I saw this painting in the Tate Britain as a teenager and have been haunted by it ever since. Millais masterpieces in the Tate Britain collection sparked a long time love affair with the works of the Pre-Raphaelites and to a lesser degree a greater interest in the writings of the Bard as well.

To celebrate the birth of Millais then, let me show you my own homage to Ophelia (top), as inspired by Millais, and all the other artists who have re-imagined this iconic image from both classical literature and art.

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~ Hamlet, Act IV, Scene VII ~

Laertes	Drowned! O, where?
Queen Gertrude	There is a willow grows askant the brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead-men's-fingers call them. There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herselfFell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.
Laertes	Alas, then she is drowned?
Queen Gertrude	Drowned, drowned