Hamlet 

James Ensor, the Belgian artist, drew this image of Hamlet in pencil. The visual codes and historical associations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet would have been very familiar to Ensor’s audience. Shakespeare was extremely popular in Belgium and more widely in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. The image shows Hamlet looking over his shoulder, with his arm outstretched. It references a specific scene in the play in which Hamlet sees his father's ghost and contemplates avenging his death. In his life, Ensor was frequently rejected by the Belgian art establishment. Here, he may have seen a parallel between his fate and that of Hamlet, the tragic hero, who, like Ensor, suffered at the hands of a corrupt older generation. As art historians, we can better understand this image by researching the cultural context in which it was made. Only through understanding the wider social and institutional context can the meaning of art be fully understood.