Ophelia - John Everett Mallais

Ophelia by John Everett Mallais

Ophelia was painted in 1851 by Sir Everett John Mallais. It is arguably Mallias most renowned painting. Typical of Pre-Raphaelite art, the subject matter pertains to a work of literature, in this case, Hamlet.  The character ophelia was Hamlet's spurned lover driven mad after the murder of her father at the hand of Hamlet. While wandering through the woods, Ophelia drowns in the creek . Her sudden and mysterious death is a suspected suicide. However, Mallais's painting seems indifferent to the tragedy. instead, Mallais's attention to detail throughout the work as a whole marginalizes the subject, Ophelia.  In fact, the landscape surrounding Ophelia was painted first. The landscape was painted in separate sections, giving significance to every corner. Mallais filled in the figure only when the background was perfected. The order thus contradicts the technique of academy art, where the subject matter was the primary focus of the work. "This part by part execution was quite opposed to traditional 'high art' working methods, which demanded the artist be mindful, when working on individual parts, of their subordination to a larger conceptual whole (Mcgraw.)" Following the Pre-Raphaelite technique, Mallais painted directly from nature. Mallais then had his model, Elizabeth Siddall,  pose in a bath tub to capture the effect of floating. It is believed that Siddall became ill after posing in the frigid water for hours.