Ophelia c. 1869

oil, canvas

tree

woman

16_19th-century

oil

charcoal drawing

possibly oil pastel

oil painting

canvas

underpainting

pastel chalk drawing

surrealism

painting painterly

watercolour illustration

surrealist

watercolor

realism

Victor Müller's "Ophelia" (c. 1869) is a Romantic painting depicting a young woman, Ophelia, from Shakespeare's Hamlet, reclining on a willow branch. The artist employs a soft, melancholic palette and delicate brushstrokes to evoke the character's tragic fate. The lush foliage and flowing water in the background create a sense of melancholy and isolation. The painting is currently housed in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

⋮

Commission Art: in 1868 Victor Müller signed a contract with the art publisher Bruckmann in Munich, which obliged him to contribute to a Shakespeare cycle. The paintings were to be sold and the reproductions offered for sale in a high edition at the same time. It was obvious that the artist had to meet the expectations of the conservative buyers. “This all would be a great shredding of feeling. Melancholy, elegiac, blasé, unhappy, in short: quite curious,” is how Müller ranted about his work. This was not the place for radical pictorial concepts.