The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood scandalised the Victorians with their unconventional paintings.  But Ophelia by John Everett Millais was loved even when first completed in 1852.  It remains one of the most popular paintings in the Tate collection and the gallery’s best-selling postcard.

The Industrial Revolution was in full blast, bringing with it a new freedom of movement. Millais, one of the founders of the Brotherhood, would take the train out of London and paint nature as he saw it, not according to the fixed conventions taught at the Royal Academy. Continue reading Pre-Raphaelites and nature: Ophelia →