Ophelia

November 2004
Acrylic on canvas 51x75cm (Sold)

"Her clothes spread wide, and mermaid-like a while they bore her up" "Her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay, to muddy death." These are the two Hamlet quotes that feature in this painting.

The circumstances of Ophelia's death have always fascinated me, she climbed out on a branch over a river to pick some flowers, the branch broke and she fell in the water and drowned. Ophelia's death is referred to as a suicide by a grave digger who comments about the fact that she is being buried in consecrated ground just because she is a "gentlewoman." Read more...