Is overtourism coming for this German museum next? That remains to be seen, but the Swifties are already on the way after a painting featured in Taylor Swift’s latest music video drew a surge of visitors to a lesser-known art museum over the weekend.
Hundreds of fans have reportedly traveled to the Hessische Landesmuseum in central Germany to see Friedrich Heyser’s “Ophelia,” painted at the turn of the 20th century. Per the Associated Press, one family made the trip from Hamburg—a five-hour drive—just to view the painting, museum spokesperson Susanne Hirschmann told German news outlets on Wednesday.
The oil canvas appears to have inspired the opening scene of the singer’s new music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” the first track on her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. In the opening shot, Swift poses as Ophelia in a scene that mirrors the painting’s composition, from the flowing white gown to the Art Nouveau setting.
Taylor Swift as Ophelia in the music video.
There are multiple sculptures and artworks around the world dedicated to and inspired by the fictional character of Ophelia, the most famous of which is arguably the John Everett Millais masterpiece in the Tate in London, completed in 1852.
The song references the tragic Shakespearean character from Hamlet. In the play, the titular character accidentally kills her father, Polonius. Consumed with grief, she later drowns herself. In Swift’s song, her lyrics reference the story with a different ending. Singing to a lover that she “might’ve drowned in the melancholy,” she thanks them for showing up, telling them that they “saved [her] heart from the fate of Ophelia.”
“The Fate of Ophelia” is currently the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as on Apple Music for the U.S. Top 100, Global Top 100, and German Top 100.
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at .
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