Objects of Substance - Ophelia

Truth be told, we already know a great deal about this doomed character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet . Most significantly, we know Ophelia’s tragic end. However, this sculpture is remarkably different from other renditions of her throughout art history. Importantly, she is nude and the upturned corners of her mouth belie the facts that we know about her: grief, madness, death. One of the most famous images of Ophelia is by the Pre-Raphaelite artist, John Everett Millais (1829 1896), now housed in the permanent collection of the Tate in London. Painted between 1851 and 1852, it is a truly captivating mixture of melancholy and beauty, hopelessness, and nature, but ultimately, it is tragedy that radiates from the canvas. The juxtaposition of the delicate flowers, lush foliage, vivid colour, and extreme detail of the landscape against the figure of the woman drowning is striking, and it is this very characteristic that made it such a revolutionary picture in its time.

John Everett Millais, Ophelia , 1851-2, oil on canvas, Tate, London.

Susan Bleakley sculpted our Ophelia in 1999, having previously painted the portrait of Judith Hancock in 1993. It was to be the Year 12 cohort’s gift to the School. Bleakley (1948-) was born in Brisbane, and studied art at the Brisbane Technical College [now Queensland University of Technology]. She received mentorship in sculpture from the award-winning artist, Mark Lee Bernstein, as well as Frank Lambert. Bleakley generously shared her Grammar Ophelia story with me. She was initially contacted by 1999 Head Girls, Sally Brand and Judy Hainsworth. From photographs of her work, Ophelia was quickly selected. The piece was originally sculpted in clay and, subsequently, moulds were made from silicone and then plaster. Next, the sculpture was cast in wax, and later revised using heated apparatus. A local foundry in Brisbane, Perides Art Foundry, cast the sculpture in bronze utilising the ‘lost-wax process’ which involves the wax being heated away by the molten metal. This technique is not very common in Australia. Once the bronze is finished, various chemicals are then applied to produce the patina or oxidisation. These processes can be natural or contrived, and are ‘used to accentuate pieces, provide contrast, imply age, introduce colour to the bronze, and sometimes to add a dose of reality’. Only six editions of Ophelia were cast.