Study for Ophelia

This oil study for Ophelia, dated 1910, belongs to the long series of works in which Waterhouse explored Shakespeare's tragic heroine. Waterhouse produced multiple finished paintings of Ophelia throughout his career — the 1889 and 1910 versions are among the best known — along with preparatory studies and variants. Ophelia, from Hamlet, drowns after being driven mad by her father's murder and Hamlet's rejection, and her flower-strewn death in water made her one of the most painted female subjects in British art from Millais onward. Waterhouse's studies for Ophelia reflect his working method of investigating pose, expression, and floral arrangement in advance of larger compositions. The study format allowed greater freedom of handling and experiment than the finished exhibition canvas.

As a study, this work shows Waterhouse's thinking about pose and colour without the fully resolved finish of an exhibition painting. Brushwork is bolder and more exploratory, flower arrangements are loosely indicated, and the water setting is suggested rather than fully developed. The focus is on the figure's expression and posture.