Ophelia
William Orchardson
DESCRIPTION
Sir William Quiller Orchardson was a highly talented portrait painter as well as an exceptional narrative painter, skillful at conveying feelings, emotions, and psychological tension or despair via body language and expression, as well as descriptive detail. Ophelia is a Shakespearean character who appears in Hamlet. She was Hamlet's potential wife who descends into grief and madness after he assassinates her father, Polonius. She dies at a young age, drowning in a river.
DETAILS
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Artist
William Orchardson
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Date
1874
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Medium
Oil on canvas
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Object number
3229
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Dimensions unframed
101.5 × 128.3 cm
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Dimensions framed
123.1 × 147.4 cm
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Marks
Signed bottom right
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Subject
ARTIST PROFILE
Sir William Quiller Orchardson RA, 1832-1910
Born in Edinburgh, Orchardson was one of a group of artists who studied at the city’s Trustees’ Academy until Robert Scott Lauder. He moved to London at the age of 30 with fellow artist John Pettie, where he established himself as a painter of portraits and genre scenes. His breakthrough work, ‘Napoleon on board the Bellerephon’, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1880 to great acclaim and was bought for the Tate. He is best known for narrative scenes from history or literature, and ‘costume genre’ paintings set in the 18th century which show sensitive observation of human nature. He also excelled at portraiture, and was commissioned to paint a group portrait for Queen Victoria.
