Pick Your Favorite Ophelia

https://www.thecollector.com/shakespeares-ophelia-art/

When I saw the headline “9 Artistic Representations of Shakespeare’s Ophelia” I thought immediately of Millais’ Ophelia in the river. But what else? I remember a variety of Juliets and Mirandas and Ladies Macbeth, but I couldn’t remember how many interpretations of Ophelia I’d seen.

Well here we have 9 of them, and yes Millais is the first “iconic” one to get that out of the way. I’m a little weirded out that so many of them are artistically naked. Not only have I never thought of Ophelia that way (I tend to think of her as very young), but it does kind of go against that whole “her garments, heavy with their drink…” thing. This is mentioned in the article.

Pretty sure I’d seen #5 before. Never #2, #2 is creepy.

I think #7 is my favorite. How about you?

2 thoughts on “Pick Your Favorite Ophelia

  1. That’s very interesting! I’ve just finished a piece on Millais’ painting—look for it soon at Bardfilm! And number six is by Sarah Bernhardt! I had no idea she was an artist as well as an actor.

    One of my favorites is by David Burliuk. It’s near the top on this list:

    https://arthive.com/publications/240~The_shakespeariad_top_10_artists_who_illustrated_the_english_genius_from_realism_to_primitivism

    Thanks for pointing this out to us!

    —kj (Bardfilm)

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