Women in Mourning: "Ophelia", Sir John Everett Millais, 1851

Introduction

Artists have been using women in mourning for centuries as a way to express their grief towards society. Many ongoing factors can lead to tears from a woman, but it is the act of mourning that really represents that something is truly wrong. The act of mourning touches the sympathy in everyone. When women cry, it can be with tears of sadness or happiness, but when women mourn, they are expressing their deepest sorrow.By using women in mourning as a means to provoke sympathy from the people, artists are able to send clearer messages of the true meaning behind their artwork.The five art pieces that I are very different in the fact that the women are grieving over something different. For example, Eve from The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is crying over being kicked out of the Garden of Eden while the woman in Misery by Kathe Kollwitz is mourning over her dead child.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

"Ophelia", Sir John Everett Millais, 1851

An English painter named Sir John Millais created Ophelia in 1851. Sir John Millais was well known as being part of an artistic movement named the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. (Encyclopedia Britannica). It was a movement that was opposed to contemporary art, which they believed had begun with Raphael. The Brotherhood was so opposed to contemporary art because they believed the teaching of Raphael had corrupted the teachings of art: it was too mechanical. The scene in the painting is based upon the Shakespeare play “Hamlet.” Ophelia allows herself to die after she discovers her lover, Hamlet, had slain her father (Google Art Project). The natural background is famous for it’s accurate depiction of nature. The scenery is based upon Hogsmill River in Surrey. The woman posing as Ophelia in the picture is Elizabeth Siddal. Because the river was so cold for Siddal while Millais was painting her, he put lamps beneath her to heat up the water.

Sir John Millais’ style of art is exemplary of Romanticism. He makes the scene of Ophelia drowning seem natural and graceful through the use of his serene natural background and the hauntingly peaceful expression on Ophelia’s face. Her body language suggests how welcoming Ophelia is of death with not only her arms opened towards the sky but also the palms of her hands. The strokes the Millais uses to paint his art piece are small and indefinite, creating a dreamlike quality to the picture. Ophelia wears a greyish hue attire, making it look like a funeral dress. Ophelia’s pallid skin also matches the scene because she looks like she is already dead, yet she looks so beautiful while continuing to float in the water.

Ophelia is a very interesting way of depicting a woman in mourning. Unlike the other art pieces where women have tears and are in obvious distress, Millais gives Ophelia a peaceful facial expression. Instead, he uses the flowers that Ophelia is holding as a way to show a woman in mourning with each flower symbolizing a different grievance. The poppies that Ophelia are holding symbolize death; daisies symbolize innocence, and pansies symbolize love in vain (Google Art Project). The overall mood of the picture seems so calm yet the meaning behind the flowers gives the painting an ironic turn. In all the other four paintings, the background has a bleak and foreboding feeling, but Ophelia manages to capture the tragic? beauty of death. Another reason why Ophelia stands out is because of how Millais is not mourning over an aspect of society in any way. Instead, he is simply painting the picture as away to capture grace, beauty, love, and grief all in one brilliant masterpiece.

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Want to know more?

Head on over to Lauren H's Silence in Art. Similar to women in mourning, artists used silence as a way to signify that there is something wrong in their society. Lauren's blog contains another art piece by Kathe Kollwitz called "Die Uberlendendem", or "Survivor". Kollqitz uses her distinctive artistic style to paint silenced children. By having silenced children, it represents how the government has taken away the basic freedoms of the people: signifying that there is something wrong in the society."Speechless" by Shirin Neshat is also found in both of our blogs. Lauren describes Neshat's picture as a silent girl "showing compliance to the government". Similarly, I described the girl as showing submission through the tears that brim to bottom of her eyes. With two different themes, Silence in Art and Women in Mourning, Lauren and I were able to reach the same conclusion: artists use are to describe the corruption of society.

STILL want to know more???

Don't worry, John G's "Loneliness in Art" is another amazing blog you can visit that relates to "Women in Mourning". While John's Blog does not involve any women, the loneliness that is represented through the pieces of art reverberates a sense of mourning. For example, John has the painting, "At Eternity's Gate" in his blog. It shows a man sitting alone in a chair with his head buried into his hands. According to John, the man reflects the loneliness and depression Van Gogh felt. Because of loneliness, the man in the picture is also mourning. The way that the man has his face buried into his hands is also similar to Adam in "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" by Masaccio. Although Adam is experiencing regret and sadness from being expelled from the Garden of Eve and not loneliness, he still has the same mourning reaction as the man mourning over loneliness. While women are the commonly used figure to symbolize mourning, artists can also use men in mourning as a way to project their despair towards themselves, nature, or society.