Ophelia (Shakespeare's Hamlet)
Son of the actress Ellen Terry and architect Edward William Godwin, Craig became a gifted actor and innovative stage designer. This print represents Ophelia with her mind unhinged by the murder of her father in Act 4, Scene 5 of Shakespeare's play, where she appears crowned with weeds and flowers, singing pathetically. Craig developed a visionary staging of Hamlet for Constantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1912, and built model sets and carved figures out of wood in low relief to demonstrate his ideas. Experimenting, he discovered that these could be printed to create "black figure" images, this being a rare surviving example.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ophelia (Shakespeare's Hamlet)
- Artist: Edward Gordon Craig (British, Stevenage, Hertfordshire 1872–1966 Vence, France)
- Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
- Date: 1910
- Medium: Wood engraving
- Dimensions: Image: 8 13/16 × 3 1/16 in. (22.4 × 7.8 cm)
Sheet: 15 1/4 × 10 3/8 in. (38.7 × 26.4 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1924
- Object Number: 24.65.3
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Edward Gordon Craig
Chatto & Windus
1925
Edward Gordon Craig
block cut 1909, printed 1923
Edward Gordon Craig
block cut 1898, printed 1923
Edward Gordon Craig
block cut 1908, printed 1923
Edward Gordon Craig
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