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Hamlet Tempted to Kill the King (Act III, Scene III from Hamlet)

(French, 1798–1863)
1843
Medium/TechniqueLithograph
DimensionsSheet: 55 x 36 cm (21 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.)
Image: 26.5 x 18.1 cm (10 7/16 x 7 1/8 in.)
Credit LineGift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo
Accession number2010.1322.8
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPrints
Description

One of a complete set of thirteen lithographs for "Hamlet, Treize Sujets Dessinés par Eug. Delacroix" with the original printed wrappers.  Hamlet. Treize Sujets Dessinés par Eug, Delacroix.  Paris: Gihaut frères, 1843. The first edition was published by Delacroix in 1843 and comprised thirteen lithographs.  A later edition, published in 1864, added three additional lithographs: Delteil 107, Hamlet and Ophelia [2010.1322.5]; Delteil114, Ophelia's Song; and Delteil 117, Hamlet and Laertes in Ophelia's Grave [2010.1322.14].

This edition consisted of 80 sets, 60 on white wove paper, as here, and 20 on chine.  The printed wrapper of the set is extremely rare.

Inscriptions" A présent je puis le tuer facilement . . . . mais quoi! le surprendrais-je au milieu de ses prières, au moment où il purifie son âme! non, non, - Ô Conscience plus noire que la mort! âme engluée dans le crime! je ne puis prier! . . . . mes paroles s'adressent lá-haut, mes pensées demeurent, ici bas." "Lith.de Villain" in margin, lr.
ProvenanceBetween the 1950s and 1980s, acquired by Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne, Switzerland and Whitchurch, England; March 19, 2004, sold by Josefowitz to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA and Naples, FL; 2010, year-end gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 26, 2011)