Research- Pre Rapaelite movement.

This week in a lecture we were told about the Pre- Raphaelite movement. I had never heard of this before so decided to look a little further into it, and found some of the pictures look quite gothic.
The Pre-Raphaelite movement was a group of english painters, poets and critics who created paintings that were very radical and controversial in the 1850's-80's. They were inspired by the medievil ages, fables, literature etc. I found a lot of the paintings are of women with red hair, red lips and some with a lot of skin exposed. Which is not how women were portrayed in those times so was changing the role of women.

Here is a painting of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet by Sir John Everett Millais.

DcoetzeeBo. (2011). File:John Everett Millais - Ophelia - Google Art Project.jpg. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Ophelia_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg. Last accessed 21st Jan 2014.

It is currently being held in the Tate Britain in London and has an approximate value of 30 million.
Although this photo isn't your typical 'gothic' as it is bright and colourful. The image still to me has a real sense of morbidity as she is singing before she drowns in the river.

My initial thoughts after observing without having researched the painting of Ophelia, was that it was of a woman drowning in a lake. Even though i saw this, i still felt a sense of calm and tranquillity throughout the painting as a whole. The surroundings have very vibrant bright colours of leaves and flowers flourishing, which are completely opposite too what Ophelia is portraying. I feel like the background is portraying life, growth and future, where as she is portraying death and termination.

I do not feel like the scenery overpowers her or draws attention away, she is still the main focal point of the painting and all the colours go hand in hand giving off a feel of serenity and harmony. The fact that Ophelia is holding flowers that have blossomed and not dead ones gives off this mood to me even more so. However, looking closely there appears to be a poppy which can symbolise death and remembrance.

After researching the underlying meaning of the photo, I found out that Ophelia had fallen into the river by accident and was completely oblivious to her fate. I began to see the stillness that the painting is portraying and no longer interpret the image as traumatic. Ophelia’s open arms, upward gaze and relaxed body makes her appear as though she is lost in her own time and thoughts, singing in the river, unaware of what is about to happen.  

As i attempt to unpack the painting further, i notice that the fallen tree gives a sense of decay and destruction within a natural environment. It is surrounded by imagery that represents my initial thoughts of life and growth; however the tree produces a contradiction. The construction within the surroundings forms a binary opposite to the death and deconstruction of the tree, and perhaps Ophelia’s fate.