Artwork information
Taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 1), the composition is adapted from Veronese’s St John the Baptist Preaching (Galleria Borghese, Rome) which Fuseli would have seen in an exhibition at the Louvre in 1802. The influence of Michelangelo can also be seen in the treatment of the gravedigger. The composition draws the spectator into the space of the grave, thus heightening the force of Hamlet’s reflective speech on the nature of death.
- Artist
- Henry Fuseli
- Title
- Hamlet, Horatio and the Gravedigger
- Production date
- 1804
- Medium
- pen with grey, blue and pink wash
- Dimensions
- 372 x 295 mm
- Credit line
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1965
- Accession No
- 1965/78
- Copyright
- No known copyright restrictions
- Department
- International Art
- Display status
- Not on display
More by Henry Fuseli (49)
Shakespeare: Tempest, Act I, Scene II
1797
Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act I, Scene III
1798
Shakespeare: Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act II, Scene IV
1795
Shakespeare: Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act IV, Scene I, Oberon, Queen of the Fairies, Puck, Bottom and Fairies attending
1803
Explore connections (5)
Graves
49 Artworks
Literature (humanities)
23 Artworks
Plays
185 Artworks
Men
2227 Artworks
Grief
21 Artworks