Study for the reclining figure of Hamlet, from The Play Scene, Hamlet, act 3, scene 2 1993

Edwin Austin Abbey made this drawing of Hamlet with charcoal. Just look at the marks—the image emerges through light and shadow, built up through the charcoal, shifting and emerging through the artist’s touch. I can imagine him working on this drawing, reworking the angle of the legs, the position of the hands. The legs are dark, heavy with the weight of grief and the hand covering the face just so. The hand itself is barely there, fading back into the ground, becoming almost ghost-like. It reminds me of the work of other artists like Kathe Kollwitz, whose drawings share a similar feeling of despair. There’s this ongoing conversation, exchange of ideas across time, each artist inspiring the other’s creativity. Hamlet embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings over fixed or definitive readings.