The Theodore Watts-Dunton Cabinet: Hamlet and Ophelia

Henry Treffry Dunn (Truro 1838 - 1899). Oil painting on panel, Hamlet and Ophelia by Henry Treffry Dunn (Truro 1838 - 1899), circa 1896-98.From the elaborately worked pen and ink drawing of 1858 (Surtees No. 108, British Museum). The subject is Hamlet Act III, Sc. i : Ophelia is returning the letters and gifts Hamlet has given her. Rossetti described it in a letter of 1870 to George Eliot: "....I have wished to symbolize the character and situation, as well as to represent the incident.........I have meant to make Hamlet ramping about and talking wildly, kneeling on one of the little stalls and pulling to pieces the roses .......hardly knowing all he says and does,". Some of the fine detail of the drawing is missing from this version. Wightwick Manor, West Midlands (Accredited Museum)