Ophelia

1851 · Painting · 111.8 × 76.2 cm

May one see it?

Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel

The National Gallery

London, United Kingdom

The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.

In this state since: Sep 29, 2026
Source: The museum's own collection data

On the map Museum page

About the painting

Ophelia is an 1851–52 painting by British artist John Everett Millais in the collection of Tate Britain, London. It depicts the young Danish noblewoman Ophelia in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, loses her sanity and drowns.

The painting, modelled by Elizabeth Siddal, received mixed responses when first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, but is today widely regarded as one of the most important mid-nineteenth-century works, and is renowned for its beauty and natural landscape. The work has influenced artists such as John William Waterhouse, Peter Blake, Ed Ruscha and Friedrich Heyser.

Wikipedia CC BY-SA

Particulars

Accession number: NG1506

Sources

Wikidata · fetched 6 days ago
Image: The National Gallery — John Everett Millais · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Meanwhile, in the life of John Everett Millais

The whole life

1850
The scandal over “Christ in the House of His Parents”
Christ in the House of His Parents (1850) was judged excessively realistic, showing a working-class Holy Family in a messy carpentry workshop, and The Times called it outrageous. Millais was undaunted: the critic John Ruskin saw his outstanding talent at once and backed him, and his works were always accepted for the Academy’s exhibitions, however radical.
1851–1852
Elizabeth Siddal sits for “Ophelia”
For Ophelia (1851–52), his best-known painting, Millais portrayed Rossetti’s beloved Elizabeth Siddal as the heroine. The dense, elaborate pictorial surface, weaving the figure into the natural world, has been described as a kind of “pictorial eco-system”.
1853
Elected an associate member of the Royal Academy
In 1853 Millais was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy of Arts.
summer 1853
A summer at Glenfinlas: falling in love with Effie Ruskin
In the summer of 1853 John Ruskin and his wife Effie invited Millais to spend the summer with them at Glenfinlas, where Millais and Effie fell in love. Effie modelled for his The Order of Release; her marriage to Ruskin, which had lasted several years, was annulled after her parents realised something was wrong and she filed for annulment, and Millais and Effie then married.

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