Details

Title

The Murder of Polonius (Le Meurtre de Polonius), from the Hamlet series

Artist/Maker

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

Date

1834–1843, printed 1843–1864

Medium

Black and white lithograph on wove paper

Dimensions

9 11/16 × 7 5/8 inches

Credit

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

Accession #

73.44

Location

Currently not on view

Alerted by a voice, Hamlet, sword drawn, rushes to a curtain in his mother’s room behind which Polonius is hiding to spy on the prince’s conversation with Gertrude. In the next moment, thinking the spy is Claudius, Hamlet will impale the hapless courtier with the words, “How now! a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!” The sparse setting focuses the viewer’s full attention on the action itself, creating a sense of suspense.