CAS AH 287 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Manchester Art Gallery, John Everett Millais

• School: Boston University
• Department: History of Art & Architecture
• Course: CAS AH 287
• Professor: Jonathan Ribner

Document Summary

Milllai s abandonment of religious subject matter for themes inspired by literature, history, and contemporary life. The scene depicted is from shakespeare"s hamlet, act iv, scene vii, in which ophelia, driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover hamlet, drowns herself in a stream: There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds. Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, Unto that element; but long it could not be. Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull"d the poor wretch from her melodious lay. Shakespeare was a favourite source for victorian painters, and the tragic-romantic figure of. Ophelia from hamlet was an especially popular subject, featuring regularly in royal academy exhibitions. Arthur hughes exhibited his version of her death scene in the same year as this picture was shown (manchester city art gallery). Millais began the background in july 1851, at ewell, surrey.