Taylor Swift fans sang and danced to her hit song in Germany on Sunday. Ophelia’s fate in front of a painting exhibited in the Wiesbaden museum that supposedly inspired the American star.
Around 200 participants attended the event organized by the museum around the painting, made around 1900, by the German painter Friedrich Heyser.
It represents Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, dressed in a white dress, floating half in the water, half on the shore, surrounded by flowers and leaves, shortly before drowning. Heyser’s painting was inspired by a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, also titled Opheliaexhibited in London at the Tate Britain.
in the clip Ophelia’s fate (The Fate of Ophelia), Taylor Swift embodies the tragic heroine from the first seconds, directly evoking this painting, before the image comes to life.
Selfies in front of the painting.
Some fans present in Wiesbaden were dressed as Ofelia, with a crown of flowers in their hair, others wore bright outfits inspired by those of the singer.
Corinna Greiner, 47, an office worker, came with her daughter. “It’s incredible that this painting that inspired Taylor Swift is hanging here in Wiesbaden,” he told AFP.
Tickets for the event sold out within a few hours.
After the presentation of the work by a museum expert, fans moved to the sound of the song played over the loudspeakers, before a long selfie session in front of the painting.
“I really like art and I always wanted to see the link between Ophelia’s painting and Taylor Swift in real life,” Isabelle Bastian, 26, from Darmstadt (west), tells AFP.
“The atmosphere is incredible, it’s like a mini concert!” he laughs.
The day after its release in early October, the American megastar’s long-awaited twelfth album had already broken streaming records, according to specialized platforms.
The museum, located near Frankfurt, had not imagined that this painting, on display since 2019, would inspire a music video by the star until its social networks came to life after the release of the song.
“We were very surprised,” museum director Andreas Henning told AFP, adding that he could not believe the “massive influx of visitors” that occurred.
These visitors arrive by the hundreds from all over Germany, France and England, but also from the United States and South America.
The museum has not had any contact with Taylor Swift or her team about the connection between her hit, the album’s lead single. The life of a showgirl – and Heyser’s painting.
The fans, for their part, chanted in unison on Sunday: “Taylor, come to Wiesbaden!”
Source: BFM TV
