Taylor Swift appears to be mining art history for inspiration on the cover of her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl. On Wednesday, the pop star unveiled the details of the new album on an episode of New Heights, the podcast co-hosted by her boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce. On the album’s cover, Swift appears in a bedazzled bodice, partially submerged in water. Art-savvy fans noted the visual similarities between the cover and Sir John Everett Millais’s famous painting of Ophelia, the ill-fated character in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This apparent reference is substantiated by the title of the album’s first track, “The Fate of Ophelia.”
Ophelia is a figure shrouded in tragedy. In Shakespeare’s play, she’s used as a proxy for the ambitions of the men around her. Ultimately, after Hamlet ends their courtship, she lapses into madness and drowns. Though she is often portrayed and referenced in art and literature, Millais’s Ophelia (1851–52) is one of the best-known depictions of the tragic heroine.
Millais painted the work en plein air near Surrey, England, and based the backdrop on the banks of the Hogsmill River. Ophelia herself was painted afterwards in his London studio.
Today, Ophelia is considered one of the most iconic works of the mid-19th century. The questions around Ophelia the character endure: Was her death a moment of passive submission, or a final assertion of control? It remains to be seen how Swift will interpret Ophelia’s legacy, but her discography is rife with themes similar to those surrounding the tragic heroine—abuses wrought by powerful men, a life spent as a canvas for other’s beliefs, madness as clarity, and more.
Among fans, Swift is known for planting references to pop culture, history, and her own body of work in everything she does, from the emojis she uses in Instagram captions to the outfits she wears in interviews. She refers to these as “Easter eggs.” In the New Heights interview, Swift appeared in front of a bookcase displaying books about artists including Mark Rothko, Ruth Asawa, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai Weiwei, and Marc Chagall. Some have speculated that these books are themselves Easter eggs, the meaning of which will be revealed in time.
The Life of a Showgirl is set to be released on October 3rd.
