King Lear shouting to the stormy skies by William Dyce, Ophelia in the “weeping brook” by John Everett Millais’ when William Shakespeare's beautiful tragedies inspire painters …

1. Shakespeare’s Tragedies
in Paintings
(2)

3. the kiss between the doomed lovers by Gaetano Previati,
the three witches in a swirl of mist and lightning bolts by John Martin’s,
King Lear shouting to the stormy skies by William Dyce,
Ophelia in the “weeping brook” by John Everett Millais’
when William Shakespeare's beautiful tragedies inspire painters …

4. Romeo and Juliet
an doomed romance of two teenagers from feuding families, an most famous love story ever written …
…
Prologue. Chorus. - In the beautiful city of Verona, where our story takes place, a long-standing hatred between two families erupts
into new violence, and citizens stain their hands with the blood of their fellow citizens.
Two unlucky children of these enemy families become lovers and commit suicide. Their unfortunate deaths put an end to their
parents' feud.

5. a Renaissance painting of a young daughter of the nobility …
…
Act 2 scene 2
Juliet appears at a window ...
Romeo. - But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east,
and Juliet is the sun.
...
Juliet. - O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
John William Waterhouse
Juliet (The Blue Necklace)
Juliette (Le Collier bleu)
1898
Private collection

8. Just before dawn, Romeo prepares to lower himself from Juliet’s window
to begin his exile.
Romeo he must leave before the morning comes or be put to death.
Lady Capulet enters and tells Juliet that she is to marry Paris.
Juliet decides to visit Friar Laurence.
…
Cityscape in background.
Romeo and Juliet” by Ford Madox Brown depicts the romantic
and poignant moment in the early dawn on Juliet’s balcony when Romeo
needs to depart from his love.
Ford Madox Brown
Romeo and Juliet
Roméo et Juliette
1869-70
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

10. the unmistakable light of the great master of Ferrara …
…
Act 3 Scene 5
Juliet. - O God, I have an ill-divining soul. Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight fails, or thou lookest pale.
Romeo. - And trust me, love, in my eye so do you. Dry sorrow drinks our blood.
Adieu, adieu!
Gaetano Previati
The Kiss or Romeo and Juliet
Le baiser ou Roméo et Juliette
1890
Private collection

13. the lovers parting first thing in the morning, with the nurse anxiously
trying to dispatch Romeo before it becomes light.
Beyond the large open window, dark, ominous clouds announce a storm,
possibly a reference to the lovers’ terrible deaths.
After Romeo has left Juliet’s bedroom the following morning,
her mother breaks the news that that she is to be married to Paris,
which she refuses ... Juliette seeks help from Friar Lawrence ...
Benjamin West, attributed and his studio, attribué et atelier
Romeo and Juliet
Roméo et Juliette
1778
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans

16. Juliet apparently dead, laid out at home before being moved
to the crypt. She is surrounded by her immediate family, the Capulets,
who are highlighted for emphasis.
Lord and Lady Capulet are closest, with Juliet’s nurse behind.
Count Paris is at the right, with Friar Laurence behind him.
The window reveals the two prominent towers of Verona,
and at the back of the house preparations are still being
made for Juliet’s wedding.
News reaches Romeo of Juliet’s death, and he decides to return
to Verona and join Juliet in death …
Frederic Leighton
The Feigned Death of Juliet
La Mort de Juliette
1856-1858
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

19. Romeo holding the apparently dead body of his lover in his arms.
…
Act 5 Scene 3
Romeo. - Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide.
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy seasick,
weary bark.
Here's to my love!
(drinks the poison)
O true apothecary, Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
(Romeo dies)
Eugène Delacroix
Roméo et Juliette (scène des tombeaux des Capulets)
Romeo and Juliet at the Tomb of the Capulets
1851
Musée Delacroix, Paris

20. Juliet wakes …
…
Act 5 Scene 3
Juliet. - O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.
(stabs herself with Romeos dagger and dies)

22. The Prince and the Capulets enter.
Romeo and Juliet are discovered in the tomb.
Capulet and Montague agree to end the feud that has taken so many lives.
…
Act 5 Scene 3
Capulet. - O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughters
jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
Prince. - A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun,
for sorrow, will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk
of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo
Frederic Leighton
The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the Dead Bodies
of Romeo and Juliet
La Réconciliation des Montaigu et des Capulets devant les corps
de Roméo et Juliette
1855
Collection particulière

26. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
a prince whose duty to revenge his father’s death entangles him in philosophical problems he can’t solve.
…
Outside Elsinore, the Danish royal castle ...
Hamlet waits with Horatio and Marcellus for the ghost to appear. When it does appear, Hamlet runs after it, and the others follow.

27. …
Act 1 Scene 4
Hamlet . - ... Unhand me, gentlemen. By heaven, I’ll make a ghost
of him that lets me!
I say, away!
Go on. I’ll follow thee.
(Ghost and Hamlet exit.)
…
Act 1 Scene 5
Ghost. -... List, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love.
Hamlet. - O God!
Ghost. - Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Hamlet. - Murder?
Ghost. - Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul,
strange, and unnatural.
Johann Heinrich Füssli
Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus and the ghost of Hamlet's father
Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus et le fantôme du père d'Hamlet
1780-1785
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich

30. Hamlet is in a state of shock and grief as he has discovered
that his father has been murdered by his uncle.
…
Act 3 Scene 1
“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?
…
When Ophelia enters, Hamlet confuses her with mixed messages.
and tells her to go to a nunnery to repent her sins.
Ophelia doesn't understand the way he treats her.
Mikhail Vrubel
Hamlet and Ophelia
Hamlet et Ophélie
1884
Russian Museum Государственный Русский музей, Saint Petersburg

33. Hamlet reproaches his mother for her attitude and ...
…
Act 3 Scene 4
Polonius.- (behind the arras). - What ho! Help!
Hamlet. - How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead.
(He kills Polonius by thrusting a rapier through the arras.)
Polonius. - (behind the arras) . O, I am slain!
Queen. - O me, what hast thou done?
Hamlet. - Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
Queen. - O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
Hamlet. - A bloody deed - almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king
and marry with his brother.
Queen. - As kill a king?
Hamlet. - Ay, lady, it was my word.
(He pulls Polonius’ body from behind the arras.)
Eugène Delacroix
Hamlet devant le corps de Polonius
Hamlet before the body of Polonius
1854-1856
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims, Reims

36. Ophelia, traumatized when Hamlet breaks off their betrothal
and accidentally kills her father, she allows herself to fall
into a stream and drown.
There is a deeper and more poignant tragedy here too,
in that Lizzie Siddal, Millais’ model for this work,
died just a decade later at the age of only 32,
from an opium overdose which may well have been suicidal.
…
Act 4 Scene 7
Gertrude. - ...- Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile
they bore her up,
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable of her own distress Or like a creature native
and endued Unto that element.
... - Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.
John Everett Millais
Ophelia
Ophélie
1851-1852
Tate Britain, London

40. Two gravediggers are discussing whether Ophelia should have
a Christian burial when she is believed to have killed herself.
Hamlet passes with Horatio ...
Act 5 Scene 1
First Gravedigger. - This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.
Hamlet. - This?
First Gravedigger. - E'en that.
Hamlet. - Let me see. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy. He has bore me on his back a thousand times;
and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!
Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret
Hamlet and the Gravediggers
Hamlet et les fossoyeurs
1883
Dahesh Museum of Art, New York

43. …
The scene is interrupted by the royal family and Laertes entering
the graveyard to bury Ophelia.
…
Act 5 Scene 1
(Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords attendant, and the corpse of Ophelia,
with a Doctor of Divinity.)
Hamlet. … - Here comes the King, The Queen, the courtiers.
Who is this they follow? And with such maimed rites?
This doth betoken The corse they follow did
with desp’rate hand Fordo its own life.
’Twas of some estate.
Couch we awhile and mark.
(Hamlet and Horatio conceal themselves.)
Eugène Delacroix
Hamlet et Horatio au cimetière
Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard
1839
Musée du Louvre, Paris

46. image of fragile innocence, inexorable fate and fatal love that hypnotizes
and attracts,
Time stands still and drags on …
Vrubel turned Ophelia into an everlasting dream.
…
Act 5 Scene 1
Hamlet. - Why, I will fight with him upon this theme
Until my eyelids will no longer wag!
Gertrude. - Oh, my son, what theme?
Hamlet. - I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not
with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?
Claudius. - Oh, he is mad, Laertes.
Gertrude. - For love of God, forbear him.
Mikhail Vrubel
Hamlet and Ophelia
Hamlet et Ophélie
1888
Третьяковська галерея, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

48. o.esqsegues@gmail.com
Shakespeare’s Tragedies in Paintings (2)
Les tragédies de William Shakespeare dans la peinture (2)
images and text credit www.
Music Loreena McKennitt - Prologue
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