Ophelia's Travels

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Friends and Foes:
Mr Spielmann 1899

".one of the greatest of Millais' conceptions, as well as one of the most marvellously and completely accurate and elaborate studies of Nature ever made by the hand of man.. The robin whistles on the branch, while the distraught Ophelia sings her own death-dirge, just as she sinks beneath the water with eyes wide open, unconscious of the danger and all else. It is one of the proofs of the greatness of this picture that, despite all elaboration, less worthy though still superb of execution, the brilliancy of colour, diligence of microscopic research, and masterly handling, it is Ophelia's face that holds the spectator, rivets his attention, and stirs his emotion."

Mr Spielmann quoted in The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais by his son John Guille Millais, vol. 1, 1899, p.145. (Mr Marion Harry Spielmann, Art Critic).

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