Ready for it? Swifties swarm German museum to see Ophelia painting
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Fans of Taylor Swift pose next to a placard with the title 'Home of Taylor Swift's Ophelia' outside the Museum in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Nov 2.
PHOTO: AFP
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WIESBADEN, Germany - Taylor Swift fans sang and danced on Nov 2 to her new hit The Fate of Ophelia at a German museum exhibiting a painting thought to have inspired the video for the chart-topper.
Some came as Ophelia, in white dresses with flowers in their hair, while others donned sparkly outfits like those often worn by Swift, as they descended on the western town of Wiesbaden.
They were attending a special event to see the painting by artist Friedrich Heyser, which shows Ophelia, a character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in a white dress floating in a river among flowers before her death.
At the start of the music video for The Fate of Ophelia, from her latest album The Life of a Showgirl
Since the single’s release in October, the Wiesbaden museum has been flooded with Swift fans seeking to get a glimpse of the work.
“It’s incredible that this picture, which inspired Taylor Swift, is hanging here in Wiesbaden,” Ms Corinna Greiner, a 47-year-old office worker attending the Nov 2 event with her daughter, told AFP.
“When I found out, I was simply overwhelmed.”
About 200 Swift fans flocked to the sold-out event, which started with a lecture from one of the museum’s experts about the painting.
Fans of Taylor Swift and other visitors listen to a lecture about the painting Ophelia at the museum on Nov 2.
PHOTO: AFP
The Fate of Ophelia was then blasted from speakers, and the fans got to their feet to dance in front of Heyer’s painting, before lining up to snap selfies with it.
Great atmosphere
“I really love art, and I wanted to see the connection between the Ophelia painting and Taylor Swift in real life,” Ms Isabelle Bastian, a 26-year-old student who was attending the event, told AFP.
“The atmosphere is great – it’s like a mini-concert.”
Heyser is thought to have completed the work featuring Ophelia – a noblewoman from Denmark in Shakespeare’s play, who goes mad and drowns – in around 1900.
A museum attendant stands next to the painting Ophelia by German artist Friedrich Heyser inside the museum on Nov 2.
PHOTO: AFP
It has been in the Wiesbaden museum’s collection since 2019. But the museum had no idea it was going to feature in Swift’s video until their social media channels lit up after the release of The Fate of Ophelia in October.
“We were very surprised,” museum director Andreas Henning told AFP.
“We had no idea that Taylor Swift would choose this painting, and we had no inkling of what that would mean.
“The Swifties are coming from Germany, France, and England – it’s a big phenomenon.”
The museum has not heard from Swift or her management about the link between her hit, which is the lead single from her album The Life of a Showgirl, and Heyser’s painting.
But fans are keen for her to pay a visit.
“Taylor, come to Wiesbaden!” they chanted in unison at the end of the Nov 2 event. AFP
