Details

Title

Hamlet and the Corpse of Polonius (Hamlet et le Cadavre de Polonius), from the Hamlet series

Artist/Maker

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

Date

1835, printed 1843–1864

Medium

Black and white lithograph on wove paper

Dimensions

10 1/16 × 7 inches

Credit

Purchase in honor of Mrs. Robert Wells, President 1972-1973 of the Members Guild

Accession #

73.46

Location

Currently not on view

Hamlet realizes he has killed the hapless Polonius rather than the king. Contemplating the corpse, he sums up the situation carelessly with the words, “Indeed, this counsellor is now most still, most secret, and most grave, who was in life a foolish prating knave.”