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Hamlet and Daemon (Shakespeare's Hamlet)

Subject William Shakespeare British
1909
Not on view
Son of the leading actress Ellen Terry, and architect Edward William Godwin, Craig himself became a gifted actor and stage designer. This print of Hamlet listening to a mysterious whisperer was made as Craig developed a visionary staging of the play for Constantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre. For that 1912 production, he conceived of the ghost in Shakespeare as two beings—the first a skeletal representation of Hamlet’s murdered father in Act 1—and the second an androgynous Daemon or alter ego, who entices the prince towards death later in the play. To demonstrate his ideas, Craig built model sets and carved figures out of wood in low relief to model the actors’ movements. Experimenting, he discovered that these could be printed to create "black figure" images.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Hamlet and Daemon (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: 1909
  • Medium: Wood engraving
  • Dimensions: Image: 9 5/16 × 3 3/4 in. (23.7 × 9.5 cm)
    Sheet: 18 5/8 × 10 1/4 in. (47.3 × 26 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1924
  • Object Number: 24.65.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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