Ophelia

We all know tragic story of Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, who was singing before she drowned in a river in Denmark. Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, the model for Hunt's painting, nearly imitated her death - she became seriously ill as a result of lying in cold water for long hours of posing. An artist and poet herself, Lizzie modeled and was friends with many of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. After becoming engaged to Rossetti, she began treating her chronic illness with laudanum to which she became addicted. Siddal overdosed on laudanum in 1862. Her death was a huge blow for Rosetti who continued depicting her even a year after her death in his paintings. One such painting is Beata Beatrix.