Ophelia (1864) | Thomas Francis Dicksee | Painting Art Print | Wall Frame

Artists painted an abundance of portraits of Ophelia, the well-known character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet as each of the following paintings presents a freeze-frame of one single moment from Ophelia’s life or death in which she must be observed and analyzed based solely on her physical appearance and the appearance of her surroundings.

She is driven mad when her father, Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. She dies while still very young, suffering from grief and madness. Her decision to choose death over such a life is applauded. Her womanhood is finally acknowledged and validated. Ophelia's drowning is the consummate representation of an eternal retreat into the feminine, trading an individual voice for eternal silence in union with feminine essence. In turn, her death expresses the danger of reducing an individual to his or her gender and disregarding the voice of the marginalized.

Thomas Francis Dicksee’s Ophelia has the long red hair of the Pre-Raphaelite muses, crowned with colorful flowers. In Dicksee’s painting, Ophelia has removed her crown of wildflowers, she sits on a part of the riverbank covered in dead vegetation, again in a white dress, the bottom of which has already begun to be soiled by the muddy water. The contact between her dress and the water hints at what is to come as the river seems to be clutching at her clothes. The slight reflection of Ophelia suggests that, were she to look down, she would see a ghostly image of herself in the water already.

 Our professionally remastered artwork comes in two variations:

1 .Matte: 12 X 18 inch high definition quality print -  300 gsm Matte Finish Art Paper Rolled in a Shipping Tube.

2. Frame: 14 X 20 inch finest quality photo frame -  Golden/Black Frame Finish.