Ophelia, Artist: John Everett Millais, Model: Elizabeth Siddal

Ophelia, 1851-52, Oil on Canvas

Lizzie’s experience posing as Ophelia for Millais was a trying one…and a famous one, as well. Her experience has been chronicled so much elsewhere that I’d like to begin with the words of the artist’s own son in order to give closer knowledge of the incident: “Miss Siddal had a trying experience whilst acting as a model for Ophelia. In order that the artist might get the proper set of the garments in water and the right atmosphere and aqueous effects, she had to lie in a large bath filled with water, which was kept at an even temperature by lamps placed beneath. One day, just as the picture was nearly finished, the lamps went out unnoticed by the artist, who was so intensely absorbed in his work that he thought of nothing else, and the poor lady was kept floating in the cold water till she was quite benumbed. She herself never complained of this, but the result was that she contracted a severe cold, and her father wrote to Millais, threatening with an action of 50 lbs. for his carelessness. Eventually the matter was satisfactorily compromised. Millais paid the doctor’s bill, and Miss Siddal, quickly recovering, was none the worse for her cold bath.” — The son of the artist, John Guille Millais, describing the incident.

Millais was not the only artist to paint Lizzie as Ophelia. Dante Gabriel Rossetti chose to portray Ophelia in a different way, drawing inspiration from the passages I’ve transcribed below this painting:

The First Madness of Ophelia, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

HAMLET: I did love thee once.

OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET: You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old shock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.

OPHELIA: I was the more deceived.

HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things…

Hamlet says he loves her, only to turn around and say he loves her not? Can we read similarities between this and his relationship with Elizabeth Siddal? Isn’t is interesting that he chooses this passage of Hamlet and uses Siddal as his model for Ophelia, given the ups and downs of their relationship?

Related Posts @ LizzieSiddal.com:

Lizzie as Ophelia

External Links:

Ophelia and The Pre-Raphaelites

Momentary Detail in Millais’ Ophelia

The Ophelia Page

Methods in Madness: Thinking with Ophelia

Ten Things You Never Knew About Ophelia

Tate.org: Work in Focus, Ophelia