Time - Art

This painting is titled 'Ophelia' by John Everett Millais (1829-1869). John formed part of the Pre-Raphaelites towards the middle of the 19th Century together with 6 more of his friends. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of students that were against the meaning of art at that time. While critics and historians adored Raphael as the great master of the Renaissance, the young students rebelled against what they saw. They went against the predictability of academic art and turned to the simplicity of Italian painters that came before Raphael.  In this painting John got inspired from Shakespeare's play called 'Hamlet'. In this scene we can see Ophelia, Hamlet's lover drowning in the lake. He used oil on canvas and he spent four months painting with a real body in the water and the vegetation on the same spot in Surrey, England. Here we see how art can really capture a moment in time and show us the true meaning of Rebellion. Also we can see the movement of the Pre-Raphaelites and the stand they were taking to show the true meaning of what art meant.