How do you get young people to take an interest in art? Make sure there’s a Taylor Swift connection.
The German news agency dpa reports that The Museum Wiesbaden, in Wiesbaden, Germany, recently welcomed a flood of visitors — hundreds more than usual — who all wanted to see a specific painting. Why? They believe it inspired the opening sequence of Taylor’s video for “The Fate of Ophelia.”
The painting by Friedrich Heyser is called Ophelia. It depicts the character from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet moments after she’s drowned, wearing a white dress with her hair spread out behind her, and surrounded by greenery and flowers.
In the opening shot of “The Fate of Ophelia” video, the camera zooms in on what looks like a painting of a drowned woman in a white gown in a very similar pose. But the woman in the “painting” turns out to be Taylor, who then gets up and out of the painting and begins singing.
Taylor hasn’t confirmed that this was the painting that inspired the scene, but museum director Andreas Henning told dpa, “We’re surprised and happy that Taylor Swift chose this painting from the Museum Wiesbaden as a model for her video. This is, of course, a great opportunity to introduce people to the museum who don’t yet know us.”
Henning says the museum has tried to contact the singer, adding, “I would love to show Taylor Swift the original painting sometime.”
Initially a different painting, also titled Ophelia, by Sir John Everett Millais was thought to have inspired the scene in the video, but the Heyser painting is a closer match. Millais’ painting is in the Tate Britain in London, which attempted to attract visitors by pointing out the similarities.
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