Alas Poor Yorick! Antique painting of Hamlet with skull of Yorick

 

A charming and strange little painting. It's an old copy of a famous portrait of John Phillip Kemble playing Hamlet (see last picture). It was fashionable in the 19th century for people studying art to copy a famous painting, so this is probably how this piece came to be made.

The subject makes this a curious and striking artwork.

Painted on board and in reasonably good antique condition - see picture.