Oil on papier mounted on canvas H. 0.35 m; W. 0.26 m Purchased
in 2008 MD 2008 - 3 Delacroix composed no fewer than twenty
paintings of Shakespearean subjects between 1835 and 1859, not
counting his sixteen lithographs of 1834-1843 based on Hamlet,
the ill-fated romantic hero with whom he no doubt identified in
his youth after the misfortune that left him a destitute orphan.
In addition to nine paintings devoted to Hamlet, he depicted
Othello four times, but Romeo and Juliet only twice: The Parting
of Romeo and Juliet (United States, private collection), which
was exhibited in 1846, and this painting, Romeo and Juliet at
the Tomb of the Capulets. It illustrates Act V scene III, in
which Romeo finds the unconscious Juliet and, believing her to
be dead, kills himself in despair (leaving Juliet to wake and
commit suicide in turn). Delacroix discovered Shakespeare in
1825, on his famous visit to London. He admired Edmund Kean,
considering him "a very great actor" in the roles of Richard III
and Shylock. In 1827,