#Shakespeare’s Flowers

[love-for-carnation]

A page from 'Shakespeare’s Flowers' by Jessica Kerr, Illustrated by Anne Ophelia Dowden, 1975

Anne Ophelia Dowden (1907-2007, US) She is considered one of the world's foremost botanical illustrators. She wrote and illustrated 20 books. Her works are primarily found in children’s books, however, readers of Life, Natural History, Audubon and the Country Journal could also enjoy her realistic renderings of all kinds of plants.

An article about Anne https://www.womeninhorticulture.com/post/anne-ophelia-dowden-author-and-illustrator

[garlandedspirits]

Stage decoration for William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale"- by the Brückner brothers (1878)

[usefulquotes7]

A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms. - Zen Shin

[7pleiades7]

Titania Sleeping (1840) by Richard Dadd (1817-1886), oil on canvas, 64.8 × 77.5 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris

[tygerland]

John William Waterhouse Ophelia. 1910. Oil on canvas: 102 × 64 cm (40 × 25 in).

[nobeerreviews]

The Earth has music for those who listen.

-- William Shakespeare

[itgirls777]

ophelia

🪷

this painting depicts a character in Shakespeare’s play of Hamlet; where Ophelia is attacked for her womanhood, falsely accused of being impure, insulted by her lover. Here, she can be pictured cleansing herself in a stream surrounded by flowers; likely to be representative of her sweet and gentle nature which she tries to convey to Hamlet who has driven her into depression and a state of insanity. Hamlet also murders her father whom she was close with and this artwork shows her drowning herself in a ‘seemingly peaceful’ country stream.

to me, it represents the romanticisation of female depression and grief through the eyes of men (ie., Hamlet) and also represents the beauty within her that is drowned in the dark depths of the stream which could be symbolic of her depression. She is pictured with tears in her eyes as we are unsure as to what she could be thinking or feeling as she immerses herself in darkness. The silver adorned dress that she wears is an analogy to women only being a pretty jewel in men’s eyes and of her having no real purpose to Hamlet. She clutches onto a bunch of flowers while others drift down stream, this could be symbolic of the colour or light in her life (e.g her happiness, her love towards hamlet, her father as he was killed etc.) suggesting it is slipping away from her grasp as she desperately clings onto it in her last moments.

i could literally stare at the painting for hours!!

thank u for reading about my thoughts 💌

[stanford-photography]

Titania Queen of the Fairies By Jeff Stanford, 2024 Buy prints at: https://jeff-stanford.pixels.com/

[atadbitofworld]

Ophelia

Ophelia (c. 1851-1852) by John Everett Millais Tate Britain, London

[lepetitdragonvert]

Songs from the Plays of Shakespeare

1899

Artist : Paul Woodroffe

[bougainvillea-like]

She has a heart of flowers.

— aria

[perioddramapolls]

Period dramas' dresses tournament: Golden-yellow dresses

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Semifinals Finals

Winner: Bai Zhouyue's dress, from Novoland: eagle flag

Costume designer: Yee Chung-man

[harrietvane]

Anyway, Sigourney Weaver Prospero

[usefulquotes7]

Hydrangeas!!

[tygerland]

Jules-Élie Delaunay Ophelia. 1882. Oil on canvas: 61 × 43 cm (24 × 17 in).

[holymeadow]

@holymeadow