Hartford Building and Loan Association: Hamlet

1897

Not on view

This advertisement for a Connecticut loan society demonstrates how ubiquitous Hamlet’s image had become by the late 1890s. To promote business, the prince’s slim, black-clad form holding Yorick’s skull has been copied from an 1894 poster created in London by the Beggarstaffs (the design partnership of James Pryde and William Nicholson). The British original promotes a touring production starring Edward Gordon Craig. The prince’s identity may be unmistakable, but the colloquial phrase attributed to him here cannot be found in Shakespeare. Rather, “A man’s house is his castle” was published by Sir Edward Coke in "The Institutes of the Laws of England" (1682).

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Hartford Building and Loan Association: Hamlet
Artist: Wilbur Macey Stone (American, 1862–1941)
Designer: After J. & W. Beggarstaff (British, active 1893–99)
Printer: R. S. Peck and Company, Hartford, Connecticut
Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
Date: 1897
Medium: Lithograph
Dimensions: Sheet: 27 × 15 in. (68.6 × 38.1 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Purchase, Leonard A. Lauder Gift, 2015
Object Number: 2015.204
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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