Hamlet and the Corpse of Polonius
Medium
Lithograph; second state of four
Dimensions
Image: 10 1/16 x 6 15/16 in. (25.5 x 17.7 cm) Sheet: 11 3/16 x 7 15/16 in. (28.4 x 20.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1922
Accession Number
22.56.14
Tags
Art Historical Context
In Eugène Delacroix's dramatic lithograph *Hamlet and the Corpse Polonius* (1835), we witness a pivotal moment from William Shakespeare's tragedy *Hamlet*. The image captures Prince Hamlet in the heat of Act 3, Scene 4, after he has fatally stabbed Polonius, mistaking him for the king behind the arras. Delacroix, a master of French Romanticism, infuses the scene with intense emotion—Hamlet's wild-eyed remorse contrasts sharply with the lifeless form of the corpse, sword in hand, evoking the play's themes of madness, vengeance, and mortality. Created as part of Delacroix's acclaimed series of ...
About the Artist
Eugène Delacroix|William Shakespeare|Villain · 1798–1863
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) stands as the defining figure of French Romanticism and a pivotal bridge to modernism. Born in Charenton-Saint-Maurice near Paris, he came from distinguished lineage—his mother descended from the prestigious Oeben-Riesener furniture dynasty, while persistent speculation suggested the statesman Talleyrand may have been his biological father, a theory supported by physic...