
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00006049Hamlet and the Gravediggers
Inscriptions
Inscribed verso on mount, in blue ballpoint (by Winslow Ames): "Eugène Delacroix: 'Hamlet and the Gravediggers', final ddrawing for the / lithograph (in reverse) / of 1834 / A version of this drawing by Delacroix himself, with all the...(hallmarks?) of / tracing, bein in pencil on tracing paper, was dedicated to Liszt on the / mount; its dimensions, 28.7 x 21.7 cm., vary only slightly from this, / which is 28.4 x 19.9. The Liszt drawing was evidently given by L. to his / mistress Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, for it tunred up in her sale (Pss / Carolyne S.-W., 1819-1889) sold bby Hirsch, Munich, 26 November 1921, No. 52.* / A preparatory study in red chalk for the man on the ground, right, and the / standing man, left, is in the Bonnat Collection, Bayonne, repro. In 'Dessins / del la Collection Léon Bonnat', deuxième année, 1925, plate 59. / Ex coll. Eugène Lecomte (sale Paris 11/13 June 1906?; also from / sale of atelier Delacroix / * Delacroix's journal for 26 August 1855 shows that he met Princess Witt- / genstein, and that Liszt had asked Delacroix for a drawing for her. D. dined / with her on 28 August '55. The only other reference to Liszt in D's journal is a / quotation of L.'s obituary of Chopin. The present drawing is not in Robaut's/ list, but the tracing is iin Bötticher's suppleent to Robau, I, p. 216, no. 13."; at l.l.: "Kraushaar 1936 xscy".
Provenance
Estate of the artist [stamp (Lugt 838a) recto, lower left, in red]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Feb. 16–25, 1864, lot 403, to Eugène Lecomte; possibly sold, Paris, June 11–13, 1906. Jacques Seligmann Galleries, New York. Sold by C.W. Kraushaar Galleries, New York, to Winslow and Anna Ames, Providence, R.I. [blind stamp (Lugt 2602) recto, upper left]. Sold by John and Paul Herring, New York, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, Apr. 1987; promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Exhibition history
New London, CT, Lyman Alllyn Museum, Drawings: Fourth Anniversary Exhibition, 1936, cat. 142. Oakland, CA, Mills College Art Gallery, European Master Drawings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, cat. 33 (traveled). New York, Jacques Seligmann and Co., The Stage: A Loan Exhibition, 1939, cat. 14A. San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate International Exposition, Master Drawings: An Exhibition of Drawings from American Museums and Private Collections, 1940, cat. 22. San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate International Exposition, 1940, no. 422. New York, Wildenstein and Co., Eugène Delacroix 1798–1863: Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Quaker Emergency Service, 1944, cat. 73. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Masterpieces of Philadelphia Private Collections, 1947, cat. 114. New York, Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, French Master Drawings, Renaissance to Modern: A Loan Exhibition, 1959, cat. 72. Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Winslow Ames, 1965, cat. 19. Hartford, Wadsworth Athenaeum, One Hundred Master Drawings from New England Private Collections, 1973, cat. 49 (traveled). David and Alfred Smart Gallery, University of Chicago, Alumni Who Collect, I: Drawings from the 16th Century to the Present, 1982, pp. 50–51, cat. 53 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 2, 2011, cat. 60 (ill.).
Publications
"The Stage and Art Are Wedded in Brilliant New York Exhibition, 'Art Digest' 13" (Apr. 1, 1939), p. 7 (ill.).
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Eugène Delacroix / French, 1798–1863
- Date
- 1843
- Medium
- Black chalk, with touches of graphite, on cream laid paper, laid down on cream wove paper
- Dimensions
- 28.4 × 20.1 cm (11 3/16 × 7 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- drawings (visual works)
- Place
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Promised gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
- Accession no.
- Obj: 202348
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