Museum makes appeal to Taylor Swift after fans flock to see ‘Ophelia’ painting
A German museum has seen hundreds of additional visitors due to a scene in Swift’s new video
A German museum has experienced an unexpected surge in visitors, all thanks to pop superstar Taylor Swift.
The Hessische Landesmuseum in central Germany welcomed hundreds of additional guests over the weekend, drawn by a painting noted for its striking similarity to the opening of Swift’s current number one hit video, The Fate of Ophelia.
Fans, dubbed Swifties, are flocking to admire Friedrich Heyser's Art Nouveau depiction of Ophelia, the tragic character from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the original play, Ophelia, a young Danish noblewoman, ultimately descends into madness and drowns.
Among the new visitors was a family who journeyed from Hamburg specifically for the artwork, museum spokesperson Susanne Hirschmann told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.
Heyser’s oil-on-canvas painting presents the figure of Ophelia clad in white and surrounded by white water lilies. The painting’s exact year of creation is not known but experts believe it dates back to around 1900.
In the opening scene of the video for the hit song “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift slips into the role of Ophelia and becomes a living painting.
The scene shows similarities to the work of Heyser, museum director Andreas Henning told dpa.
“We are surprised and delighted that Taylor Swift used this painting from the museum as inspiration for her video,” Henning said. “This is, of course, a great opportunity to attract people to the museum who don’t know us yet.”
The Hessische Landesmuseum:
Despite the similarities, the museum in the city of Wiesbaden said it does not know for sure if the art work served as a template for Swift's song, which is currently a number one hit both in Germany and the United States.
Henning said the museum has already tried to contact the singer, but has had no success so far getting a hold of the world star.
“I would love to show Taylor Swift the original painting sometime," he added.
Last week Swift said a six-episode docuseries of her Eras Tour is to premiere on Disney+ this winter.
Alongside The End Of An Era documetary she has announced an updated Eras Tour concert film, The Final Show, more than a week following the release of her 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
In a promotional video, shared to Instagram, Swift, 35, is seen behind-the-scenes of her juggernaut worldwide tour, which began in 2023 and came to an end in December 2024.
In the video, she says: “People like to talk about phenomenons, almost as if it was pieces falling into place, as if it just happened.
“The Eras Tour wasn’t when all the pieces fell into place. This tour was just when every single one of us who had done so much work, pushing inch by inch, to where we all clicked together.
“We have broken every single record you can break with this tour. The only thing left is to close the book.”
Music stars including Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter, Florence Welch and Gracie Abrams appear across the promotional video.