Margaret Clarke
, Irish, 1884-1961
Title
OpheliaDatec.1926
MediumOil on panel
Dimensions
39 x 61 cm
Signedlower right: M. Clarke
Credit LinePurchased, 2000
Object numberNGI.4679
ProvenanceTaylor Galleries, London; purchased, Christie's, London, 19 May 2000, lot 21Exhibition HistoryMargaret Clarke, Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 1979The Irish Impressionists, Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 1991
Taking Stock: Acquisitions 2000-2010, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 13 March 2010 - 25 July 2010
Margaret Clarke – An Independent Spirit, F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, Newry, 15 September - 18 November 2017
Label TextHere, Clarke departs from the conventional representation of the tragic character from Hamlet. While Ophelia was usually depicted either in the water, having drowned, or at the water’s edge, in Clarke’s picture she reclines in a stark, foreboding, woodland setting, dressed in plain, almost funereal attire. Looking dishevelled, distracted and wan, perhaps contemplating her fate, she is arguably more consistent with the character described by Shakespeare than the sylphlike, histrionic figures of the Pre-Raphaelites. Clarke has supplanted the flowers that traditionally embellished depictions of Ophelia with a simple cluster of ivy, a plant with several telling iconographical associations.