The Murder of Polonius

Description

Hamlet thrusts a sword forward at the left of Eugène Delacroix’s image, with the queen behind him to the right and a curtain contributing to the enclosed setting. The scene represents the murder of Polonius from Shakespeare’s play. A sudden action gains its immediate force through the relation between the weapon, the neighboring figure and the interior surrounding them.

Made in 1834–43, the lithograph is Delacroix’s visual work, with Shakespeare supplying the literary frame. The medium lets a brief dramatic event become something considered more slowly, allowing relationships within the scene to carry the play’s larger resonance. Its appeal lies in the meeting of narrative knowledge and a particular image. Delacroix gives one episode its own presence while retaining the sense that a larger story continues around it.