Ophelia
Framed: 30-3/4 x 24-1/2 x 3-1/2 in. (78.1 x 62.2 x 8.9 cm)
In her second attempt to capture Ellen Terry in the role of Ophelia, Anna Lea Merritt "wished to make a painting of an Ophelia really mad." In order to perfect the expression, Merritt collected observations at "Bedlam" Hospital, the first asylum for the mentally ill in England. The resulting painting intriguingly blends fiction and reality in its composite of a Shakespearean character, a famous actress (especially identifiable by her red hair), and a "really mad" woman.
From Merritt’s memoirs:
Among [the patients] moved a lovely-looking young woman, picking up odds and ends as she slowly walked. Then she dropped on her knees, continuing to move, kneeling and grasping against her breast the bundle she had gathered—faded flowers, torn bits of paper, dead leaves, a reel of cotton! Just in front of us she stopped, looking full in my eyes with an expression questioning, doubtful, full of pain. . . . Something of her expression I got into my picture.
