Maurice Greiffenhagen. Laertes and Ophelia, 1885.


Oil on canvas, approximately 40 x 50 inches. The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Sandor Korein.


Maurice Greiffenhagen (1862-1931) was best known as an illustrator; he worked with Rider Haggard and created the illustrations for the popular novel She. Laertes and Ophelia was exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1887. An engraving of the painting is reproduced in the Art Journal, volume 56 (1894).

The image of Ophelia is traditional, but more interesting perhaps than the figures of Laertes and his sister in the foreground are the rigid, expressionless Claudius in the background and Gertrude, who turns her face, unable to watch the incoherent singing and dancing of the mad Ophelia.