Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard
A highly literate artist, Delacroix was often drawn to the works of William Shakespeare. This scene from Hamlet, for example, appears and reappears in the artist’s drawings, prints, and paintings. It describes the tragicomic encounter between Hamlet and the gravediggers in Act V. Here Hamlet and Horatio contemplate the skull of the fool Yorick.
Artwork Details
- Title: Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard
- Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
- Date: 1827–28
- Medium: Brush and brown wash with watercolor over graphite on heavy watercolor paper
- Dimensions: 13 9/16 x 7 15/16 in. (34.4 x 20.1 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
- Object Number: 1975.1.616
- Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection
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