The Play Scene from Hamlet

Details

DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. (CORK 1806-1870 LONDON)
The Play Scene from Hamlet
pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, with gum arabic on paper, in a painted arch
15 ¾ x 26 5⁄8 in. (40 x 67.7 cm.)

Provenance

John Dickinson (1825-1908), Park House, Sunderland (†); Christie’s, London, 4 December 1909, lot 83 (150 gns to Gooden & Fox).
with The Fine Art Society, London, where purchased for
The Forbes Collection; Christie's, London, 19 February 2003, lot 81, where purchased for the present collection.

Literature

R. Ormond, ‘Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) - A Major Figurative Painter’ in The Connoisseur, March 1972, pp. 165-171, illustrated.
J. Turpin, ‘German Influence on Maclise’ in Apollo, February 1973, p. 169, illustrated.
M. A. Findlay, ‘Forbes Saves the Queen’ in Arts Magazine, February 1973, pp. 26-30, illustrated.
M. Waldfogel, The Art and Mind of Victorian England; Paintings from the Forbes Magazine Collection, Minneapolis, 1974, p. 21.
A. Staley (ed.), The Royal Academy (1837-1901) Revisited: Victorian Paintings, New York, 1975, pp. 102-3, 173, no. 43.
R. Anderson (ed.), A Brush with Shakespeare: The Bard in Painting, Montgomery, 1985, p. 71.
G. Callan, The Art of Shakespeare, New Orleans, 1989, p. 67.

Exhibited

London, The Fine Art Society, Aspects of Victorian Art, March-April 1971, no. 100.
London, Arts Council of Great Britain, National Portrait Gallery and Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Daniel Maclise, March-June 1972, no. 77.
New York, Hofstra University Museum of Art, Emily Lowe Gallery, Victorian Art, October-December 1972, no. 76.
Minneapolis, University Art Gallery of Minnesota, The Art & Mind of Victorian England: Paintings from the Forbes Magazine Collection, September-November 1974, no. 32.
New York, Forbes Magazine Collection, The Royal Academy (1837-1901) Revisited: Victorian Paintings, 1975, no. 43.
Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum and Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Art of Seeing: John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, March-August 1993, no. 39.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Lucy Speelman Associate Specialist, Head of Day Sale

lspeelman@christies.com +44 207 752 3074

Lot Essay

This watercolour depicts the famous ‘play within a play’ in which Hamlet arranges for a re-enactment of his father’s murder to be witnessed by Claudius, who thereby reveals his guilt. A monumental version in oil, measuring 60 x 108 in., was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1842, and became the picture of the year. It is now in the collection of the Tate. Owing to the composition’s popularity, Maclise executed several subsequent versions, including a version in oil, also owned by the Albert Zuckerman Collection.

Composed to echo a triptych, at the apex of the triangle is the play scene itself. Hamlet lies prone across the base, adjacent to Ophelia, with his gaze firmly fixed on Polonious, Queen Gertrude, and Claudius. The latter, consumed with guilt, turns his head away. The strongly lit forces of good to the left, are juxtaposed with the forces of evil to the right, cast into shadow. Above their heads a sculpture of the figure of Justice stands in quiet judgement. In the opposite niche stands the figure of Prayer, gazing in supplication on the doomed Hamlet and Ophelia. The tapestries in the background depict The Temptation of Adam, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and The Murder of Abel, making the symbolism complete.

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