The tempest john william waterhouse ophelia
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the femme fatale? After Ophelia goes crazy, she hands out flowers and sings. This expression does not seem to accurately portray a woman who has decided to take her own life.
4. Each painting moves the story along and gets the viewer closer to her tragic end.3.
Waterhouses first Ophelia in 1889 depicts a young woman lying in a field with hair and dress disheveled gazing past the viewer.The artist has effectively integrated Ophelia with her landscape, entwining flowers in her hair on her dress and in her hands.
Her opulent dress strong contrasts her natural surroundings, but once again Waterhouse has placed flowers on her lap and in her hair tying her into her natural surroundings. Much like the previous Ophelia, the subject looks distant.
Waterhouses final depiction of Ophelia in 1910 is by far the most dramatic. She stands in the forefront occupying most of the pictorial space, gazing right at the viewer .Her penetrating stare and reddened cheeks effectively express her state of despair.
Why would an artist such as Waterhouse return to the same subject multiple times, and why this one in particular? Her mad scene (act IV, scene 5) is one of the best known in Western literature. As in the others, the others she is adorned with flowers and long reddish brown hair, but this Ophelia differs drastically from the other two representations.
The second portrays a slightly older Ophelia sitting closer to the water, but still appearing distant from her future fate and the viewer.
2. She believes him to be mad, commenting sadly "O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown." Having lost Hamlet's affection, she herself goes mad when her father is killed by Hamlet.
She suffers an untimely death after climbing up into a willow tree. This piece was the painting that Waterhouse submitted to the Royal Academy of Art in order to graduate.
The Academy recorded notes on “Ophelia” after it was submitted which read:
“Ophelia lying in the grass, with the wildflowers she has gathered in the folds of her dress.
She stares out into the dark water, giving the onlooker a profile view of her strangely solemn face.