Ophélie
1860
Joseph Severn captures the tragic Shakespearean character Ophelia in a moment of heartbreaking stillness just before her famous demise. Leaning over a mossy riverbank, she clutches a letter while surrounded by a carefully arranged garden of foxgloves and vibrant red poppies—flowers that symbolize both sleep and death in Victorian flower language. Painted in 1860 during the Romantic era, this piece drips with melancholic beauty, showing Ophelia not floating in the water like Millais's famous version, but in the quiet, desperate moments right before she lets go. It's a hauntingly beautiful take on one of literature's most famous mad scenes.