Here’s the caption to this painting at the Tate Gallery in London:
This work shows the death of Ophelia, a scene from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Many Victorian painters like Millais used Shakespeare’s plays as inspiration. Hamlet murders Ophelia’s father, and she is so upset she falls into a stream and downs. The flowers she is holding were chosen for their meanings. The poppies symbolise death.
The background was painted from real life. When this picture was made, it was thought to be one of the most accurate studies of nature ever painted. Artist, poet and model Elizabeth Siddall posed for Ophelia in a bath of water at Millais’s studio. The water was meant to be kept warm by lamps underneath, but these went out, and she became ill after spending so long in cold water.