The heroine Ophelia was popular with 19th century artists. Rae shows the moment in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 4, Scene 5) when Ophelia, mad with grief, symbolically scatters rue (a bitter-tasting herb), rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbine, daisies and violets. According to Rae’s husband, the artist Ernest Normand (1857-1923), this was painted under the influence of their neighbour, Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896).