Observations placeholder
Waterhouse, John William - Ophelia
Identifier
004973
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Waterhouse’s painting of Ophelia shows her with eyes wide and staring - the tragic heroine, flowers in hair, more clutched by her left hand, dashing through the wood. Here the eyes denote 'a form of madness caused by distress' or spiritual experience - bulging eyes.
The sleeves in the dresses of those days were like two horns deliberately, often with a coloured interior to draw attention to the 'entry' point, which is why I have added the symbol of the twin horns
A description of the experience
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J W Waterhouse ‘Ophelia’ 1910 [detail] |