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Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

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Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

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Information about the artist
The type/style of painting (+ its typical features)
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Public reaction/critics' opinion
Your own impression

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Karl Pavlovich Bryullov was born in 1799 in a family that, since his great-grandfather, was associated with art. Having graduated from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal, he, together with his brother Alexander, a gifted architect, goes to Rome. In the Eternal City, he works fruitfully, paints portraits and paintings that delight the public, critics and crowned persons. Six years over the monumental dense worked Karl Bryullov. "The Last Day of Pompeii" (a description of the picture and its perception by the Italians can be expressed in one word - a triumph) became a masterpiece for the inhabitants of the country. They believed that the canvas of the artist evokes thoughts about the heroic past of their homeland.

The description of the picture can be briefly characterized in such a way that the master did not try to enclose everything in classical triangles in the composition. In addition, listening to the voice of romanticism, he portrayed a massive folk scene, violating the classical principle of bas-relief. The action develops, leaving deep into the canvas: from the chariot fell a man, who is carried away by frightened horses. The viewer's view involuntarily rushes after him into the abyss, into the cycle of events.

But not all of the dispassionate ideas of classicism the painter left. His characters are beautiful externally and internally. The horror of their position is muffled by the perfect beauty of the characters. By this, the tragedy of their condition is softened for the viewer. In addition, the composition uses a contrast reception between panic and calm.

In a canvas full of movement the rhythm of gestures of hands and movements of bodies are very important. Hands guard, protect, hug, with anger extend to the sky and fall powerlessly. Like sculptures, their shapes are bulky. They want to be circumvented, so that they can more closely examine. The contour clearly covers each figure. This classic device was not rejected by romantics.

Tragically gloomy is the day of the disaster. Darkness, absolutely impenetrable, hung over people in distress. These black clouds of smoke and ash break sharp lightning. The horizon floods the blood-red light of the fire. Its reflections lie on falling buildings and columns, on people - men, women, children - adding an even greater tragedy to the situation and showing an imminent threat of death. Bryullov tends to the naturalness of lighting, violating the requirements of classicism. He subtly captures the reflexes of light and connects them with distinct chiaroscuro.

Description and analysis of the painting Briullov "LastDay of Pompeii "will be incomplete if you do not consider all the people acting in the picture. For them, the day of the Last Judgment has arrived: stone monumental buildings are crumbling like paper from earthquakes. Around the roar, cries for help, prayers to the gods, who refused the unfortunate. The essence of the human soul is completely naked before the face of death. All groups, which are essentially a portrait, face the viewer.

Critics lavished the The Last Day of Pompeii with praise. The first Russian artwork to cause such an interest abroad, it gave birth to a wonderful anthologic poem by Alexander Pushkin.

For me, this painting has an incredible power. I understand little about art and most commonly rely only on the feelings I have when I look at a particular painting. Looking at this piece of art it seems that all the action takes place right in front of you, which speaks of Bryullov's undoubted talent. The Last Day of Pompeii is truly a masterpiece.

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Sandro Botticelli (real name Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi); (1445 - May 17, 1510) was an Italian painter, one of the most important masters of the Renaissance, a representative of the Florentine school of painting. The author of the paintings "Spring", "Venus and Mars", as well as "The Birth of Venus", which brought the artist world fame.

In addition to the mythological subjects for which he is best known today, Botticelli painted a wide range of religious subjects and also some portraits. His best-known works are «The Birth of Venus» and «Primavera».

Known as the “Birth of Venus”, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea spray and blown there by the winds, Zephyr and Aura. The goddess is standing on a giant scallop shell. She is met by a young woman, who is sometimes identified as one of the Graces or as the Hora of spring. She is dressed in a white dress embroidered with cornflowers, decorated with garlands of roses, and holds out a red cloak covered in flowers, the color of which symbolizes love. Even the roses, blown in by the wind are a reminder of spring. The subject of the painting, which celebrates Venus as symbol of love and beauty, was perhaps suggested by the poet Agnolo Poliziano. Botticelli takes his inspiration from classical statues for Venus’ modest pose, as she covers her nakedness with long, blond hair, which has reflections of light. Even the Winds, the pair flying in one another’s embrace, is based on an ancient work owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent.

In the painting "The Birth of Venus" every detail is filled with a special meaning. The use of a variety of symbols, religious iconography and the absolute harmony of the composition as a whole make the work a real masterpiece for all time, the study and deciphering of which has not yet been completed.

"The Birth of Venus" was created for the Paris Salon of 1879. Critics praised the painting and it was awarded the Grand Prix of Rome, after which it was acquired by the state for the Luxembourg Museum.

It is difficult for me to evaluate art because I don’t know anything about it, but when I look at this painting I can't take my eyes off, I want to look at every detail. It seems to me that Botticelli skillfully conveyed the facial features of all those present on the canvas, especially Venus. I believe that if an artist can charm with his painting even those who are not interested in it, it means that he is really talented and deserves attention.

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The Persistence of Memory by  Salvador Dalí

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The Persistence of Memory by  Salvador Dalí

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Salvador Dalí was born in 1904 in Figueres, Spain, and began studying and exhibiting art at an early age. Although he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid at 17, he quickly realized he was more interested in the artistic innovations happening in Paris.

He idolized fellow Spaniard Pablo Picasso and met him on a trip to Paris in 1926. In 1929, he was introduced to André Breton on another trip to Paris and began collaborating with the French Surrealists. He met his soon-to-be wife Gala (who at the time was married to Paul Éluard) on a trip to Cadaques with a group of Surrealists later that year, and from that point on, Dalí was enamored by her—even as their relationship became fraught with infidelity.

Throughout the 1930s, Dalí created some of his most iconic paintings and collaborated with others in the group on writing and film projects. He and Gala moved to New York City in 1940, where they stayed until 1948. In America, Dalí designed theater sets for the ballet, began creating jewelry, and developed a relationship with Philippe Halsman, a photographer who captured Dalí in whimsical staged portraits.

Throughout the second half of his life, Dalí took full advantage of the household name he had become, going on The Dick Cavett Show and appearing in ads for everything from Lanvin chocolate to Old Angus scotch.

Dalí was known for being an eccentric character, and his love of the limelight manifested in stunts like wearing a full deep-sea diving suit (nearly suffocating as a result) to an exhibition opening in 1936; unabashedly declaring himself a genius, most prominently in a book titled Diary of a Genius (1963); and walking around Paris with an anteater on a leash. Some of these antics seemed to overshadow the seriousness of his work, and for a period of time towards the end of his life and just following his death in 1989, scholars seemed to discount much of Dalí’s oeuvre, claiming that he peaked as an artist in the 1920s and ’30s. Respect has since been restored for the Surrealist master, his lasting influence indelible.

The Persistence of Memory (1931) is one of the most iconic and recognizable paintings of Surrealism. This style aims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. “My whole ambition in the pictorial domain is to materialize the images of my concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of precision,” Dalí wrote in his book Conquest of the Irrational. This “fury of precision” is exactly what makes The Persistence of Memory so surreal. Instead of rendering a fantastical world in hasty brushstrokes and arbitrary colors, Dalí painted familiar objects in unfamiliar ways.

The painting depicts a dreamworld in which common objects are deformed and displayed in a bizarre and irrational way: watches, solid and hard objects appear to be inexplicably limp and melting in the desolate landscape. Dalí paints his fantastical vision in a meticulous and realistic manner: he effortlessly integrates the real and the imaginary in order “to systemize confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality”.
Dali uses shadow and color together to create a different experience.
The colors in The Persistence of Memory are primarily warm including a lot of yellow, gold, black, and brown (Warm Colors). The browns on the cube and the scenery range from light to dark.

Critics and art admirers agree, that although The Persistence of Memory is an early work for Dalí, it was career-defining in its execution of Surrealist ideals. In his impassioned first “Manifesto of Surrealism,” Breton wrote: “Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought.” Dalí’s iconic work creates new associations, deconstructs the all-powerful mechanism of time, and brings to canvas the often unnerving and nonsensical feeling of dreaming. Nearly 100 years after its creation, The Persistence of Memory remains a portrait of a great artist’s unbridled vision.

In my opinion, The Persistence of Memory is one of the most thought-provoking paintings ever created. First of all, its name “The Persistence of Memory” is rather riveting, because the first thing we see when we look at the painting are clocks, so we can make assumptions that this painting is about time. Instead Dali focuses on human conscience and more precisely memory.  That is an interesting take, because we can see how human memory and time are intertwined. Secondly, the duality of this painting is fascinating. It is called “The Persistence of Memory”, but clocks are not in a resting position. They are melting, therefore they cannot be persistent, our memory cannot be that as well. All those things combined make this art piece one of the most iconic paintings of Surrealism.

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Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942) is an American painter best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. Only at the age of 22 he started studying art: he enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and performed some work as a silversmith. From 1922 to 1928, Wood made for trips to Europe, where he studied many styles of painting, especially Impressionism and post-Impressionism. His most famous painting "American Gothic" became one of the most recognizable and parodied images in American art of the XX century.

The style of this painting is Regionalism. This art movement depicts realistic scenes of rural and small-town America primarily in the Midwest. It appeared in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression, and ended in the 1940s due to the end of World War II and a lack of development within the movement. It reached its height of popularity from 1930 to 1935, as it was widely appreciated for its reassuring images of the American heartland during the Great Depression. Regionalist art in general is in a relatively conservative and traditionalist style that appealed to popular American sensibilities, while strictly opposing the perceived domination of French art. The aim of this art movement was to revive patriotism and love for ordinary America with its small towns and rural landscapes, because during that time America was still a heavily agricultural nation, with a much smaller portion of its population living in industrial cities such as New York City or Chicago.

In the background we can see a small white house built in the Carpenter Gothic architectural style that was typical for the USA of those times. In the foreground we can see "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house". It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The figures were modeled by Wood's sister Nan Wood Graham and their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron evoking 20th-century rural Americana while the man is adorned in overalls covered by a suit jacket and carries a pitchfork.

We do not see any bright and bold colours because, as it was mentioned before, this painting depicts the real American life that could be dull, boring and tough. But we see lots of natural colours: blue for the sky, green for the trees, brown for the old-fashioned apron and dark-blue for the shabby suit jacket.

After Wood had finished his work, he decided to submit his painting to a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Then the image was printed in several city newspapers. The unexpected happened - the residents of Iowa, where the picture was created, were angered by the satirical depiction of the residents of the state. One lady even threatened to bite off the artist's ear. Grant Wood in his defense said that he had wanted to create a collective portrait of Americans and did not want to hurt the feelings of residents of the state. There was no sense for Wood to laugh at what he loved - he grew up in Iowa and for him all its citizens and all its landscapes were native and beloved. Somebody admires this work of art, somebody is embarrassed with it and many even feel scared. The woman's depressed sight and the way how man is holding his pitchfork just like weapon look like a scene from a horror film.

I still cannot state what I truly think about this painting. It scares me and attracts my attention at the same time. The more I look at "American Gothic", the more unique and interesting details I notice. I really love such ambiguous works of art that excite different emotions and make people think, that is why for me Wood's painting is fantastic.

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The Demon Seated by Mikhail Vrubel (1890)

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The Demon Seated by Mikhail Vrubel (1890)

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Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (1856 - 1910) is a famous Russian symbolist painter who worked in all genres of art, including painting, graphics, decorative sculpture, and theatrical art.

The work of Mikhail Vrubel is one of the most significant and mysterious phenomena of Russian art of the late XIX century. Tragedy, heroic spirit and unique decorative gift make Vrubel an artist for all time. Eternally living in his own world, inaccessible to the understanding of others, Vrubel was able to recreate his complex world in the images of his unusual art, and these images became one of the most important milestones of Russian culture at the turn of the century.

Beginning in 1890, demons began to appear in Vrubel's work. It is noteworthy that he first turns to these images in Kiev, while working on the painting of the walls of the Cyril Church.

He again returns to the theme of demons while working on illustrations for Lermontov’s two-volume edition, which was scheduled for the writer's anniversary. On April 10, 1891, the publication saw the light of day, and immediately began to collect tough critical reviews in the press: Vrubel’s drawings were charged with, “rudeness, ugliness, caricature, and absurdity”. Performed in black watercolor, in fact, they showed the artist’s virtuosity, his ability to express clearly with just two colors: black and white.

The appearance of the Demon in the illustrations for Lermontov’s poem resembles the appearance that Vrubel painted in parallel with them in the picture "The Demon Seated". The artist talked about working on it in a letter to his sister Catherine: “I am writing to the Demon, that is, not only the monumental Demon, whom I will write over time, but the“ demonic ”- a half-naked, winged, young, sadly thoughtful figure sitting with her knees hugged , against the background of the sunset and looks at a flowering glade with which branches stretching under the flowers stretch to her. "

The painting depicts a demon sitting atop a mountain. His flexed musculature and wrought hands contrast vividly with his slumped figure and sad facial expression. He appears at once passive, introverted, proud and solitary. His body shows contrasting masculinity and femininity with his long hair and indolent gaze. His face seems desperate for love in his cold surroundings.

Vrubel described his hero as follows: “A demon is not so much an evil spirit as a suffering and mournful one, with all this an imperious, majestic spirit.” His whole appearance is filled with strength: a muscular body, large features and a strong-willed chin, a powerful neck contrast with huge sad eyes and a womanly sensual mouth.

The whole picture is like one huge gem, shimmering in thousands of faces. This effect arises thanks to a special technique that the artist used: he applied paint with a palette knife with flat, wide and short strokes. Vrubel’s sister recalled that he was fascinated by the beauty of crystals during his studies at the gymnasium, where he grew them in natural science classes.

I was struck by the depth of this lonely demon's gaze, which does not frighten and disgusts at all. Looking at this work of art, I am drowning in both dark and charming shades, incredible patterns and strokes of paint. The picture seems to live its own life, and the viewer, as if enchanted, plunges into the sadness and longing of the demon. Vrubel saw himself in this demon, so he amazingly managed to convey the full depth of his emotional experiences in this picture.
Sadness almost borders on the depression of grief, combined with the gaps of hope – this is the theme of Vrubel's work.

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An Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Bronzino

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An Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Bronzino

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The famous Italian painter, nicknamed Bronzino, was born in 1503 in Florence, the capital of Tuscany. The real name of the master is Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano.  Bronzino was a member of the Florentine Academy. As a student of Rafaellino del Garbo and Jacopo Pontormo, the artist adopted their style, masterfully rethought and improved it. As a result, Bronzino became one of the most prominent representatives of the movement called Mannerism.

Paintings in this style are often distinguished by the whimsical composition, the complexity of the work, the pretentiousness of the lines and the richness of the colors. The artist created frescoes, paintings for altars and decor of churches and monasteries, canvases on mythological, allegorical, and religious themes.

An Allegory with Venus and Cupid is an allegorical painting by Angolo di Cosimo di Mariano (1545). the artist depicted Venus, the goddess of love, who is embraced by a winged young man, her son Cupid, not in a filial way. To the right of the central group we see a cheerful boy who personifies Pleasure. Behind him is a mysterious girl in green, we notice the body of a snake under her dress. Apparently, she personifies Falsehood - a bad quality that accompanies love. To the left of the central group we notice an angry old woman tearing her hair out. This is Jealousy. It  is a union of envy and despair, without which love rarely does. At the top of the picture there are two figures lifting the veil that hides the scene from prying eyes. The winged man is the father - Time. Behind him there is a symbol of time - an hourglass. The woman to the left of Time is the Truth, revealing an explosive mixture of torments and pleasures, born to us by the gifts of Venus.

Еhe artist outlined the figures with a rigid outline and gave a soft roundness to the faces. The characters in the picture seem to be made of marble. The feeling of coldness is emphasized by pale blue and pale white shades. Almost the only warm shade is the red-pink pillow on which Cupid is leaning on his knees. Thus, gestures of love and passion are  usually gentle and passionate, here they are conveyed as calculating and cold-blooded.

The picture was painted for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Designed for a narrow circle of educated people, it was created as edification and entertainment in order to intrigue and irritate an enlightened audience.

As for me, this painting is a unique art piece, as it shows all true colours of love. I really enjoyed looking at all the details on the picture. And the main idea of this painting is that love is not only a pleasure it also contains jealousy and falsehood.

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Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin – a great Russian artist, academician.

Ivan was born in the city of Elabuga in Vyatka province on January 25, 1832 in a merchant family. The first education in Shishkin’s biography was received at the Kazan Gymnasium. After studying there for 4 years, Shishkin entered the School of Painting in Moscow.

After graduation in 1856, Ivan Shishkin’s biography was continued at the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg. Within the walls of this institution, the artist received knowledge from 1856 to 1865. In addition to academic drawing Shishkin honed his skills outside the Academy, in the picturesque places of the suburbs of Petersburg.

In 1860 in the biography of the artist Shishkin was received an important award – a gold medal of the Academy. Before that, he received a number of other, less important awards. Having the opportunity to travel, Shishkin went to Germany, to Munich. Then – to Switzerland, in Zurich. Everywhere Shishkin was engaged in the workshops of famous artists. For the painting “View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf” received the title of academician.

In 1866, Ivan Shishkin’s biography hosted a return to St. Petersburg. Traveling around Russia, Shishkin then presented his paintings at exhibitions. He painted many pictures of a pine forest, among the most famous are “Morning in the Pine Forest,” “Creek in the Woods,” “The Preserve, Pine Forest,” “Pine Forest,” “Fog in the Pine Forest.” In addition, the artist showed his paintings in the Association of traveling exhibitions. Shishkin was also a member of the circle of aquafortists. In 1873, Mr.. received the title of professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, was briefly the head of the training workshop.

“Morning in the Pine Forest” pacifies the balance of his composition. Three cubs are very harmonious with their mother-bear, and to the two halves of the fallen pine, you want to apply the divine proportion. This picture – like a random shot on an old camera, which managed to make a tourist, so long looked for a true virgin nature.

And if you look at the color of the picture, then the artist seems to be trying to cover all the richness of the colors of the dawn. We see air, but it’s not a blue accustomed shade, but rather a blue-green, a bit cloudy and hazy. The predominant colors that surrounded the clumsy inhabitants of the forest are green, blue and sunny-yellow, reflecting the mood of the awakened nature. Bright glows of golden rays in the background seem to hint at the sun, which is about to light up the earth. It is these glare and give the picture of solemnity, it is they who speak about the realism of the fog over the earth. “Morning in the Pine Forest” is another confirmation of the tactileness of Shishkin’s canvases, as cool air can even be felt.

Look carefully at the forest. Its appearance is conveyed so realistically that it becomes clear that this is not a forest glade, but a deaf thicket is the true concentration of living nature. Above her, the sun had just risen, the rays of which had already made their way to the top of the tree crowns, splashed with gold and again hid in the thicket. The moist, not yet dispersed fog seems to have woken the inhabitants of the ancient forest.

Now the cubs and the bear woke up, having developed their stormy activity. Satisfied and well-fed bears from the very morning learn about the surrounding world, exploring the nearest fallen pine, and the mother-bear watching the kids, who clumsily clamber to the tree. Moreover, the bear observes not only the cubs, but also tries to catch the slightest sounds that can disturb their idyll. It’s just amazing how these animals, written by another artist, were able to revive the compositional solution of the picture: the fallen pine was as if created for this bear family, busy with its important affairs against the backdrop of the remote and wild corner of Russian nature.

The painting “Morning in the Pine Forest” reveals the skill of a realistic image and its quality, and in many respects outrunning modern digital technology. Every blade of grass, every ray of the sun, every needle of a pine is written by Shishkin lovingly and reverently. If the foreground of the canvas depicts a fallen pine tree with bears climbing on it, then in the background an ancient forest is located. Bear cubs and the rest of nature cause each person to pacify positive emotions. Beasts, like toy, fill with kindness the beginning of a new day and tune in to positive thinking. Looking at these cute animals, it’s hard to believe that they are predators by nature and can not be capable of cruelty. But the main thing is not even that. Shishkin accentuates the viewer’s attention to the harmony of sunlight, which comes from the background of the picture with the cubs in the foreground. Draw a visual line through them – and you will certainly notice that these are the brightest objects in the picture, and everything else, including the irregular shape of the pine, is only complementary strokes.

It seems that “Morning in the Pine Forest” depicts real, living bears on some fantastic landscape. Vyatka forest, from which nature is written off, say the researchers, is very different from Shishkin. Just wondering whether there are now bears, because the picture for a century, educating the aesthetic and moral taste of people, and asks to take care of the surrounding nature.

I really like this picture.  It seems to me that when I look at this, I feel some kind of feeling of absolute calmness.  It seems to me that this takes me in my thoughts somewhere far away into childhood, into the world of carefree life, happiness.  The painting gives me positive emotions and perhaps even distracts me from negative thoughts and pressing problems.

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Saturn Devouring His Son by 	Francisco Goya

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Saturn Devouring His Son by 	Francisco Goya

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Francisco Goya was born in 1746 in Spain in a middle wealth family. He had no great education, so he wrote with errors for all his life. But he could write, so, he was lucky. And in 1764 he was studying art at a workshop. After his graduation, he was a typical painter. He earned money by painting paintings of nobility. Those days his arts had nothing special, nothing unique. But as he suffered from his disease in
1793—1799, he bought a house in the woods and started his real art. He was drawing with his own fingers, and his works were not about nobility anymore, it was about the horrors of the war of 1808, when Napoleon conquered his homeland, about the evil, and disgust. And his late works were discovered after his death.

His works are painted in romanticism style. Late works usually capture people (or creatures close to it), colors are dark.

So, this art, Saturn Devouring His Son, was found in his dining room, pictures a Saturn, a Roman god of farming (Who ate his sons in Roman myths), eating his own son. I should mention, that Saturn, besides farming, represents time. So, it's symbolic that Time itself cannibalizes its sons. The god in this work isn't a good-looking, all-knowing old man, but a mad, disgusting man.

It is usual for late Goya's arts, there're no bright colors. In the foreground, the only thing we can see in white color is a decapitated body just to underline it, make notable. Saturn's skin is morbidly yellow. It makes Saturn and his actions even more repulsive. But also, it's very symbolic. It shows how times were messed up in his period of life, especially with the Napoleon's rise. To underline other colors, and to make the whole picture more deep and uncomfortable.

Obviously, when his art were discovered, it was not considered "good" art. The public said that it was some satanic stuff and that Goya himself was a sick man.

As for me, I can call it my favorite work of art. I never loved those works of landscapes, love, and these "sterile" pictures of the destruction, with no blood and no suffering. I love this horror, surreal themes of death and suffering. This work for me represents the fact that the inescapable end is always near, and it will look just like this picture. There's nothing romantic, beautiful in Death. It's always disgusting and scary and it will devour you as disgusting as Saturn does it with his son.

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Genre: landscape, portrait, literary scene; technique: oil painting

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"Ophelia" or "Death of Ophelia" - a picture of the English artist, Sir John Everett Millais, completed by him in 1852. At the heart of the picture is the plot of Shakespeare`s play "Hamlet".

According to the tragedy of great English playwright, Ophelia became obsessed and committed suicide by drowning in the river, when she recognized that her beloved Gamlet had taken part in murder of her father. But Millais Presented us the plot, which was described Ophelia`s mother. She thought, that her daughter`s death was an accident, as if Ophelia came to hang a wreath on a tree brunch, but it suddenly broke off and the Beauty fell into the water. Indeed, the viewer sees that wreath of flowers in the hands of drowning girl.

The artist depicted Ophelia right after falling into the river. Her pose - open arms, and her gaze directed to the sky. The girl slowly sinks into the water against a bright, blooming nature. Her face has no panic or despair. Although death is inevitable (i.e. certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented), in the picture the time seems to be frozen. Millais managed to masterfully capture the moment that passes between life and death.

Gloomy background tones set up a mournful mood. The brightness of the plants in all their variety of shades contrasts with the clear waters of the river and the heavy fabrics of Ophelia`s dress. The artist os interested in the language of flowers, with their help the painter told the history of his heroine. So, the willow above Ophelia symbolizes rejected love, nettles and daises are associated with pain and innocence, the garland of violets around Ophelia`s neck symbolizes devotion and chastity (i.e. the state of not having sexual relationships), the roses that float in the water and the white field bush growing on the shore are reminiscent of the "may rose" in the play, but have a funerary shade associated with the ceremonies of the cult of the dead and poppies predict death.

The painter used several innovative artistic techniques, for example, against of generally accepted method of painting similar works, Millais at first made the background and he worked in the open-air landscape by the Hogsmeade River, in Surrey, spending most of the day sketching. Then, he also painted from nature of 19 years old girl - the most famous muse of the Pre-Raphaelities. As a result, he achieved the one of the most thorough and detailed description of the English nature.

However, he faced with uncertain estimation of contemporaries. The one considered that the feeling of death is conveyed too literally, the others see erotic context and called the picture unholy. But everyone accepted the realistic depiction of nature, noted symbolic details, the language of which was understandable and popular in the Victorian England. Nowadays, "Ophelia" is considered the most bright and impressive work of art not only of its author, but of all English art.

As for me, first of all, this picture managed to catch my eyes. The artist showed the dead Ophelia, but showed it the way as the work is so beautiful and unusual that it`s really hard to to take your eyes off it. The waters of the river froze, the wind stopped, the willow branches don`t sway, and the petals don`t fall from the flowers. There is no life and no death - this beauty is eternal.
When I looked at this picture and then knew its history, I realized, that it`s also showed us that love may be not only a light feeling, giving positive emotions and happiness, but love is also about pain and even cruelty. Love wonderfully combines both a heavy test, intense suffering and feeling of great joy, loyalty and calmness. This is why I liked this painting.