Matte Paper Poster

"Ophelia" by Joseph Severn (1860)

Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet, is driven to madness by the fear that her beloved Hamlet has abandoned her. Severn depicts her contemplating on her supposed loss by arranging foxgloves to form the letters of his name. The garland of poppies that drapes about her, as if to enfold her, alludes to the tragic outcome of her misery, her drowning death, while the stream where she will end her life can be seen in the backdrop.