Hamlet Pursuing His Father's Ghost, plate 2 from Hamlet

While Eugène Delacroix is known for the vivid colors of his paintings, his experiments with lithography provide a black-and-white glimpse into the artist’s imagination. Delacroix became immersed in the work of Shakespeare as a college student, and he saw the great English actor Edmund Kean perform Hamlet in England. Here Delacroix attempted to interpret what he saw as Shakespeare’s understated, evocative use of ghosts and spirits.