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Eugène DELACROIX & Jean-François VILLAIN (Lithographe)

(William SHAKESPEARE)

Hamlet. Treize sujets dessinés par Eug. Delacroix

Chez Gihaut frères, Edit. Boulevard des Italiens, 5, Paris s.d. (1843), 36,4x49,8cm, relié.

Complete set of 13 origi­nal lithographs by Eugène Delacroix, in first edition, first issue with the letter, one of 20 copies on chine pasted on laid paper:
”It was originally printed in a few proofs on chine, the format of which exceeds the square line by one or two centimeters. They are highly sought-after, even though they bear the letter” (Robaut).
Bound in the original pub­lisher's brown half shagreen binding, title gilt stamped on first board, original first cover wrapper preserved. Small restored tear to the margin of the wrapper over 5 cm, sunned spine, joints and corners rubbed, scattered foxing and a dampstain to the lower part of the laid paper on which the lithographs are pasted on, without affecting the litho­graphs themselves.
Exceptional and rare set of original lithographs by Eugène Delacroix on chine, illustrating Shakespeare's mas­terpiece.
A cornerstone of Romantic art, this series was “made at M. Delacroix's personal expense. Only 80 copies were printed, 60 on blanc paper and 20 on chine, and these were sold out at the time of the author's death” (Henri Béraldi). It is now esteemed as Delacroix's most accomplished graph­ic undertaking, which took him more than ten years to achieve and gener­ally considered to be one of the first modern livres de peintre.
This is Delacroix's second lithographic portfolio based on a literary work, after Goethe's Faust in 1828. Strongly influ­enced by Goya's Caprices, the plates feature deep black tones and striking contrasts, magnified by the chine:
”No one is unaware of the important role played by Delacroix in lithography, [...] in the Hamlet, in the Horse struck down by a tiger, or better still in the Lion of the Atlas and the Royal Tiger, these marvels, he shows what vigor and color the lithographic pencil can acquire in the hand of a master.”(Henri Béraldi)
Despite good reviews from Théophile Gautier and Jules Janin, the Hamlet suite remained little-known from the moment of its publication by the Gihaut brothers upon Delacroix's request: “I had them printed in small numbers, and I was well advised, for they were not successful and were far from having met printing costs”, wrote Delacroix in a letter to Champfleury (May 1 [1852]). Even in the 19th century, copies on chine were almost impossible to find: only twenty years after publication, Philippe Burty considered the set “so rare now” regardless of its different issues (Colo­nel De La Combe sale, 1863).
His contribution to Hamlet's visual imagination and iconography is im­mense. Delacroix first created the pose of Ophelia's lifeless body lying horizontally on the water – foreshad­owing John Everett Millais' famous painting. It was from these lithographs that a number of his paintings were created: “Between the 1830s and his death, Delacroix also painted oil ver­sions of a number of lithographs [in­cluding Hamlet and His Mother, now in the Metropolitan Museum]...” (Alan R. Young, Hamlet and the Visual Arts, 1709-1900).
Delacroix showed interest in Shake­speare's theater – and Hamlet in partic­ular – early on. As a youth, he signed some of his letters “Yorick” when recounting his first pas­sions for the young English­woman Elizabeth Salter. Ac­cording to his diary studied by Luciana Lourenço Paes, he probably read the play in the original English and identi­fied with the main protagonist who inspired his “Self-portrait as Hamlet”, now in the Musée Delacroix. In 1825, the painter traveled to London where he attended several of the Bard's plays and apparently regretted missing the Hamlet performed by the legendary Henry Keane at the Drury Lane Theater.
Two years later, Delacroix was among the Romantics who fell under the spell of a special performance of Hamlet at the Théâtre de l'Odéon by the English company of Covent Garden director Charles Kemble. It was the first time Shakespeare had been played in his original language, with the previous­ly censored scenes: the appearance of the ghost in the first act, Ophelia's mad­ness in the fourth, and the gravediggers in the final act. Following this histor­ic event, he was haunted like Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny and Alexandre Dumas by the lingering ghosts of this anti-hero. Delacroix's interpretation in this series of lithographs is one of the finest creations of this new movement of young Romantic artists: “Two eras are facing each other, two artistic styles too, where the medieval imagination feeds the inspiration of the new Ro­mantic face. In this sense, Delacroix's engravings can be read as an aesthetic program, in which the new art embod­ied by Hamlet his alter ego, confronts the arts of the past” (Sylvie Arlaud, La Représentation du spectre de Hamlet sur les scènes germanophones du XVIIIe au XIXe siècle).
A delicate, passionate interpretation of the English tragedy, rightly considered one of the masterpieces of 19th century illustration. These prints are “as many original drawings in which we find his personality, his verve and his poetry in all their youthful flavor” (Philippe Burty, Delacroix's atelier sale, 1864).

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