Ophelia's Death, plate 13 from Hamlet

Ophelia's Death, plate 13 from Hamlet — Eugène Delacroix. 1843.

Medium: Lithograph in black on ivory China paper laid down on white wove paper. Dimensions: Image: 15.8 × 25.7 cm (6 1/4 × 10 1/8 in.); Sheet: 35.7 × 54.9 cm (14 1/16 × 21 5/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

In this lithograph from Eugène Delacroix’s Hamlet series, the haunted, bedraggled Ophelia dangles herself above a stream in the moments before her death. Delacroix imbued the rushing water with a sense of loose fluidity through his keen use of the medium. Although Ophelia’s death happens offstage, it is recounted in a moving speech by Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, who describes the drowning Ophelia as “incapable of her own distress”: “Her clothes spread wide, and mermaid-like, a while they bore her up.” In contrast to the text and most other images of the scene, here Ophelia clutches a tree branch with one arm, as if contemplating her own demise.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.