Hamlet and the Ghost of his Father

mid-19th century

Not on view

This dramatic nighttime subject, drawn from Hamlet  (act 1, scene 4), shows the prince encountering his father’s ghost outside Elsinore, the Danish royal castle. Restrained by his friend Horatio, Hamlet struggles to follow the spirit, who will later reveal that he was murdered and demand revenge. Vogler’s composition responds to a painting that the Swiss artist Henry Fuseli created in 1789 for John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, which the younger artist would have known through prints (see 42.119.545). This finely drawn variation emphasizes the mysterious moonlit atmosphere and adds accurately detailed Renaissance costumes, a strategy in keeping with the historical Romanticism that Vogler learned at the Viennese Academy from the Nazarene painter Joseph von Führich.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Hamlet and the Ghost of his Father
Artist: Adam Vogler (Austrian, Vienna 1822–1856 Rome)
Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
Date: mid-19th century
Medium: Pen and gray ink, over graphite; double framing lines in pen and gray ink
Dimensions: sheet: 16 3/8 x 21 1/4 in. (41.6 x 54 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2011
Object Number: 2011.452
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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