Hamlet
Novelist and playwright Paul Meurice purchased the "Hamlet" lithographic stones at Delacroix’s 1864 estate sale. He then arranged for the publication of a second edition of two hundred copies, which included three designs that had been omitted in 1843. In this scene, Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, blames Hamlet for her death, and the two men fight by her gravesite. The wide-eyed expressions of the gathered crowd, crowned by Horatio with his arms flung wide, serve to heighten the emotion of the struggle between the protagonists.
Artwork Details
- Title: Hamlet
- Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
- Artist: Jules Letoula (French, born Paris, 1832)
- Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
- Publisher: Bertauts
- Date: 1864
- Medium: Lithograph, pen and brown ink
- Dimensions: 22 1/16 × 15 3/16 × 7/16 in. (56 × 38.6 × 1.1 cm)
- Classification: Books
- Credit Line: Gift from the Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.591.93
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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