Taylor Swift seems to be mining artwork historical past for inspiration on the duvet of her upcoming album, The Lifetime of a Showgirl. On Wednesday, the pop star unveiled the small print of the brand new album on an episode of New Heights, the podcast co-hosted by her boyfriend, NFL participant Travis Kelce. On the album’s cowl, Swift seems in a bedazzled bodice, partially submerged in water. Artwork-savvy followers famous the visible similarities between the duvet and Sir John Everett Millais’s well-known painting of Ophelia, the ill-fated character in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This obvious reference is substantiated by the title of the album’s first monitor, “The Destiny of Ophelia.”
Ophelia is a determine shrouded in tragedy. In Shakespeare’s play, she’s used as a proxy for the ambitions of the lads round her. Finally, after Hamlet ends their courtship, she lapses into insanity and drowns. Although she is commonly portrayed and referenced in artwork and literature, Millais’s Ophelia (1851–52) is likely one of the best-known depictions of the tragic heroine.
Millais painted the work en plein air close to Surrey, England, and primarily based the backdrop on the banks of the Hogsmill River. Ophelia herself was painted afterwards in his London studio.
At present, Ophelia is taken into account one of the vital iconic works of the mid-Nineteenth century. The questions round Ophelia the character endure: Was her loss of life a second of passive submission, or a ultimate assertion of management? It stays to be seen how Swift will interpret Ophelia’s legacy, however her discography is rife with themes just like these surrounding the tragic heroine—abuses wrought by highly effective males, a life spent as a canvas for different’s beliefs, insanity as readability, and extra.
Amongst followers, Swift is thought for planting references to popular culture, historical past, and her personal physique of labor in all the things she does, from the emojis she makes use of in Instagram captions to the outfits she wears in interviews. She refers to those as “Easter eggs.” Within the New Heights interview, Swift appeared in entrance of a bookcase displaying books about artists together with Mark Rothko, Ruth Asawa, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai Weiwei, and Marc Chagall. Some have speculated that these books are themselves Easter eggs, the that means of which might be revealed in time.
The Lifetime of a Showgirl is ready to be launched on October third.
