Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource : The Collection

Hamlet and Ophelia - Compositional Sketch

By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1854

Accession number: 1904P460

Pencil, with lines of brown ink, on light blue laid paper.

Width: 218 mm

Height: 304 mm

Kneeling male figure looking to the right at seated female figure who turns away from him.

Information

First sketch for Hamlet and Ophelia, this may be Elizabeth Siddal sitting for this subject, though there are no psychological clues. The open arm of Hamlet has been re-drawn into a closed position.

Purchased and presented by subscribers, 1903.
© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association	Artist	Organisation
Artist	Dante Gabriel Rossetti	-

Inscriptions

Type	Position(s)	Method	Date(s)	Notes
tl: Ch off corner/ bl: Ch bottom corner
-	-	Handwritten	-	Pencil

Exhibitions

Catalogue No.	Venue	Date(s)
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
215	City Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham	1947-06-07 - 1947-07-27

Paintings and Drawings by the Pre-Raphaelites and their Followers
93	Russell-Coates Art Gallery, Bournemouth	1951-06-04 - 1951-08-07

Literature

Author(s)	Date(s)	Publisher	Pages
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: an Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life
H C Marillier	1899	George Bell and Sons, London	p. 96.

City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley	1939	Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby	p. 320

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne
Virginia Surtees	1971	Oxford University Press, London	vol. 1, no. 108A, p. 61; vol. 2, pl. 153.

Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Andrea Rose	1977	The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London	no. 1C12.