The Ghost on the Terrace

Eugène Delacroix|William Shakespeare|Villain

1843 · Lithograph, first state of five · Drawings and Prints

In 1834 Delacroix began a series of lithographs devoted to Hamlet, creating moody images that mirror the troubled psyche of the prince. Choosing key scenes and poetic passages, the artist's highly personal and dramatic images were unusual in France, where interest in Shakespeare developed only in the nineteenth century. Here, in act 1, scene 5, the prince has followed his father's spirit to learn that he is: ""Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, / And for the day confined to fast in fires,/ Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature/ Are burnt and purged away." When the ghost reveals that he was murdered by Hamlet's uncle and demands revenge, his son responds with hesitancy with shocked surprise. Gihaut frères published the artist's thirteen-print set in 1843, with a second expanded edition of sixteen issued by Bertauts in 1864. Cooly received at first, the prints eventually were recognized as one of the artist's most significant achievements.

Artist

Eugène Delacroix|William Shakespeare|Villain

Date

1843

Medium

Lithograph, first state of five

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1922