HAMBURG, Nov 3 – Some 200 Swifties attended a special event at a German museum on Sunday to catch a glimpse of an Art Nouveau painting that possibly inspired “The Fate of Ophelia,” – the opening track of U.S. superstar Taylor Swift’s latest album.
Following the release of “The Life of a Showgirl” last month, the Wiesbaden Museum has experienced a surge in Swift fans wanting to view the painting of “Ophelia” exhibited there.
In the opening scene of the video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift takes on the role of Ophelia and becomes a living painting.
According to the museum, it is not officially known which motif served as the template for the video. However, a direct comparison shows a great similarity to the work of Art Nouveau and Symbolist painter Friedrich Heyser (1857-1921) from the Wiesbaden collection.
Tickets for the special guided tour on Sunday sold out within a few hours.
The visitors, mostly young women, were given a presentation on the history of the painting, dated to around 1900, with a museum employee explaining the links between Shakespeare’s character Ophelia in “Hamlet,” the artwork and Swift’s music video.
The painting depicts a young noblewoman who descends into madness and drowns after being driven to despair after being spurned by Hamlet.
Many of the fans were dressed up as Swift or Ophelia, with the museum having promised free admission to anyone in a costume.
In the foyer of the museum, some were sitting at tables and making friendship bracelets to swap with each other – a tradition that was cemented during Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour.
“It’s a gift, it’s great,” said museum director Andreas Henning – who isn’t a fan himself (yet) – about the rush the institution has seen, adding that the museum plans to display “Ophelia” even more prominently.
Among the hundreds of Swifties to check out the painting on Sunday was Emma Sawadsky, who also brought her mum, Barbel.
She says she has listened to “The Life of a Showgirl” more than 80 times since the album was released on Oct. 3.
“I feel that Swift expresses feelings in her songs that I am unable to express,” she says.
Clad in an on-brand sequinned dress, 74-year-old Wilma Estelmann is excited that the museum has been caught up in “Swiftie fever” over the past three weeks.
“I think it’s so great that young people are coming, that people who aren’t so museum-minded are coming,” she said.
Swifties and museum employees also implored Swift to check out the painting herself, chanting: “Taylor, come to Wiesbaden!”
Swift’s 12th studio album has received less favorable reviews than many of her previous releases, but it still broke the U.S. record for first-week sales, moving just over 4 million copies.
