Hamlet begegnet dem Geist seines Vaters 

Victor Müller made this pencil drawing of Hamlet meeting his father’s ghost in 19th-century Germany. It shows us how a German artist engaged with Shakespeare's famous play. The image is made up of tentative lines, full of hesitancy and doubt, which effectively captures the mood of the scene. The sketch shows Hamlet's encounter with the ghost of his father, a pivotal moment that sets the play's tragic events in motion. Müller was working in a period of growing nationalism in Germany and it's interesting to consider whether there is a patriotic element in his choice of such an iconic play. Were German artists and intellectuals interested in appropriating the great works of other nations, claiming them in some sense as universal? Was this a way of entering into a dialogue with other European cultures? To understand this drawing better, we could look into German art criticism of the period, exploring the reception of Shakespeare in German intellectual circles, and comparing Müller's approach with that of other artists. The meaning of art shifts depending on its social and institutional context.