Past ExhibitionsExhibition
Plays Enacted in Prints:
Shakespeare and Goethe by the French Romantics

Dates

Saturday, 8 October 2022 – Sunday, 22 January 2023

Hours

9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Fridays, Saturdays 9:30 am – 8:00 pm
Admission ends 30 mins. before closing time

Closed

Mondays (except for 10 October, 2 and 9 January, 2023), 11 October, 30 December, 2022- 1 January, 2023 and 10 January

Venue

Prints and Drawings Gallery, New Wing

Admission Fees

Adults 500 yen (400 yen), college students 250 yen (200 yen)

• * Admission is free for Special Exhibition or Permanent Collection ticket holders.
• * Numbers in parenthesis indicate discount fees for groups of 20 or more.
• * Free for high school students, under 18, seniors (65 and over), Campus Members. Please show your ID upon entrance.
• * Disabled visitors admitted free of charge, with one attendant. Please present your disability identification upon arrival.
• * Free admission of this exhibition and Permanent Collection on 3 November.

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Organized by

The National Museum of Western Art

With the sponsorship of

Nippon BS Broadcasting Corporation

With the cooperation of

The Western Art Foundation

Brochure

PDF file 17.9MB

The Romantic movement emerged in Europe in the late 18th century and flourished until the mid-19th century, embracing literature, music and art. The French Romantic artists, in particular, produced emotionally-charged works influenced by foreign literature and theatre. Above all, Shakespeare and Goethe exerted considerable influence across various fields with their depictions of the psychological dimensions of humanity’s struggle against fate and nature, in works that freely departed from the norms of classical drama. In the field of art, Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) and Théodore Chassériau (1819–56) took great inspiration from their plays.

The Romantic prints selected from our museum’s collection and presented here are monumental examples of what the era could achieve in this medium. The series ‘Faust’ and ‘Hamlet’, both by Delacroix, and ‘Othello’ by Chassériau are shown along with Macbeth Consulting the Witches, considered to be the first print on a literary theme by Delacroix. While bearing influences from theatrical productions of the period, all the prints are original in the way they depict the emotions flooding a scene—they are, without doubt, products of the two painters’ close readings and fertile imaginations.

Please enjoy the characters of the plays brought to life by Delacroix and Chassériau and the unfolding dramas.

Exhibition Checklist (PDF file, about 1.04MB)

Brochure (Synopses of the plays) (PDF file, about 694KB)

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