Desdemona (The Song of the Willow)

Chassériau’s comprehensive statement on Shakespeare, a suite of fifteen etchings illustrating Othello, was produced in 1844 for the publisher Eugène Piot (1812–1890; see Prat 2002, pp. 196–201; a sixteenth plate, the frontispiece, was published posthumously in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1900). The artist prepared for the project in sketchbooks datable to 1836–40 (see Sandoz 1974, p. 420, under no. 269, and Prat 1988, nos. 2229–30, 2232, 2235). This painting of 1849 is based on plate 9, La romance du saule (The Song of the Willow), which illustrates Act IV, scene iii, of the play, the final moment of calm preceding Desdemona’s murder by her husband, Othello. Behind her is Emilia, wife of Othello’s comrade Iago. The source of the violent denouement is to be found earlier in the story, when Othello promotes the young Cassio to the rank of lieutenant. Angered, Iago—who felt his claim to the position to be the stronger one—seeks revenge by arousing unfounded suspicion on the part of Othello about his wife’s faithfulness. In the painting, Emilia—Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s maid—departs on Othello’s orders; Desdemona has been singing the "Romance of the Willow," a lament that her mother’s maid, Barbara, had sung to her when she realized that her own lover was mad and had forsaken her: "The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, / Sing all a green willow; / Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, / Sing willow, willow, willow. / The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans; / Sing willow; willow; willow; / Her salt tears fell from her, and soft’ned her stones . . ." As she sings, Desdemona interrupts herself, nervous but not expecting what is to follow.

The lyre Desdemona holds here was not described by Shakespeare; Chassériau observed it in an 1836 Paris production of Rossini’s Otello, in which the part of Desdemona was sung by the celebrated singer Maria Malibran Garcia (1808–1836), called La Malibran: she was the model for the etching. Indeed, Henri Decaisne (1779–1852) had painted a portrait of La Malibran as Desdemona, with a lyre, in 1830 (Paris, Musée Carnavalet). A final impetus for Chassériau's Othello series was the publication in 1843 of Delacroix’s Hamlet lithographs (see Prat 2002, p. 201), and it was probably the appearance of Delacroix’s Othello and Desdemona (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; see Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue, vol. 3, 1986, no. 291) at the 1849 Salon that spurred him to make ten reprises of the 1844 etchings in oil. Chassériau may also have seen the two canvases by Delacroix, now lost, that depicted Desdemona and Emilia (Johnson vol. 1, 1981, no. L98 and vol. 3, 1986, no. 304).

There are at least sixteen studies for the etching, yet there are no known preparatory drawings created specifically for this painting. Chassériau made numerous changes from the etching, among them the elimination of most of the architectural detail in the background in favor of a prominent display of furniture; the right-hand orientation of Desdemona, who now directly confronts the viewer; and the retreating position of Emilia.

Although at one time there was some confusion on the matter, it is unlikely that this painting, a small cabinet picture, was exhibited in the Salon. Rather, the considerably larger Desdemona (Musée du Louvre, Paris; Sandoz 1974, no. 119) was exhibited at the 1850–51 Salon. That Desdemona and five other paintings by Chassériau were shown at the first annual exhibition of the Société des Amis des Arts in Bordeaux, which opened on November 15, 1851. The present picture may well have been among them.

Desdemona is one of a number of works that returned to the orbit of the artist's family after his death. In the early twentieth century it was acquired by Arthur Nedjma Chassériau (1850–1934), whose grandfather was the artist's uncle. Arthur devoted himself to burnishing his cousin's legacy and put together a significant collection of his work. The painting then passed to his nephew, Henri Nouvion (1862–1945), and perhaps to his son, also called Henri Nouvion (1900–1982).

Tinterow and Miller 2005; updated by Asher Ethan Miller 2014

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Th Chasseriau 1849

C. Mareilhac, possibly Bordeaux; Mme Gras (estate sale, "Succession de Madame X . . .," Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 22, 1917, no. 3, possibly for Fr 2,600); the artist's cousin, baron Arthur Nedjma Chassériau, Paris (until no later than 1931; given to Nouvion); his nephew, Henri Nouvion, possibly Paris (by 1931–at least 1933); possibly his son, Henri Nouvion, Paris; sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, June 16, 1960, no. 38, to Tourettes; [Galerie les Tourettes, Basel, in partnership with Otto Wertheimer, Paris, 1960; sold on December 7, for $31,000 to McIlhenny]; Henry P. McIlhenny, Philadelphia (1960–82; sold through Sotheby's to Wrightsman); Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1982–his d.1986); Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1986–d. 2019, cat., 2005, no. 102)

Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Éxposition Chassériau, 1819–1856," 1933, no. 50 (lent by Henri Nouvion, Paris).

San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "The Henry P. McIlhenny Collection: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture," June 15–July 31, 1962, no. 5.

Allentown, Pa. Allentown Art Museum. "French Masterpieces of the Nineteenth Century from the Henry P. McIlhenny Collection," May 1–September 18, 1977, unnumbered cat.

Pittsburgh. Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute. "French Masterpieces of the Nineteenth Century from the Henry P. McIlhenny Collection," May 10–July 1, 1979, unnumbered cat.

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.

Armand Baschet. "Les ateliers de Paris. - M. Chassériau, I." L'artiste: Beaux-arts et belles-lettres, 5e sér., 12 (June 1, 1854), p. 135, mentions "Desdemone se déshabillant," possibly this work.

Valbert Chevillard. Un peintre romantique: Théodore Chassériau. Paris, 1893, p. 285, no. 122, p. 290, no. 171, evidently lists it twice, first as in the collection of Mme Gras and then as in the collection of M. de Mareilhac.

Léonce Bénédite. Théodore Chassériau, sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, [1931], vol. 2, p. 247, ill., locates it in the Henri Nouvion collection.

Marc Sandoz. Théodore Chassériau, 1819–1856: Catalogue raisonné des peintures et estampes. Paris, 1974, p. 254, under no. 121, p. 256, no. 122, pl. CXII.

Marc Sandoz. Chassériau, 1819–1856: Exposition au profit de la Société des Amis du Louvre. Exh. cat., Galerie Daber. Paris, 1976, unpaginated, under no. 13.

Peter F. Blume. French Masterpieces of the 19th Century from the Henry P. McIlhenny Collection. Exh. cat., Allentown Art Museum. Allentown, Pa., 1977, pp. 7, 24–25, ill.

Jay M. Fisher. Théodore Chassériau: Illustrations for Othello. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, 1979, pp. 90, 101 n. 1.

Donald A. Rosenthal. Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting 1800–1880. Exh. cat., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, N.Y., 1982, pp. 116, 158 n. 14.

Marc Sandoz. Cahiers Théodore Chassériau. Vol. 1, Paris, 1982, p. 5.

Louis-Antoine Prat. Inventaire général des dessins école française: Dessins de Théodore Chassériau. Paris, 1988, vol. 1, p. 272, under no. 585, vol. 2, pp. 923–24, under no. 2250.

Stéphane Guégan in Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856): The Unknown Romantic. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 328 n. 6, under no. 196 [French ed., "Chassériau, un autre romantisme," Paris], mistakenly locates it in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gary Tinterow and Asher Ethan Miller in The Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, pp. 362–65, no. 102, ill. (color).

Hakim Bishara. "A Glorious Gift of European Artworks Is on Display at the Metropolitan Museum." Hyperallergic. November 19, 2019, ill. (color, installation view) [https://hyperallergic.com/528444/a-glorious-gift-of-european-artworks-is-on-display-at-the-metropolitan-museum/].

Didier Rykner. "Le legs Wrightsman au Metropolitan (3): peintures et pastel français du XIXe." Tribune de l'art (August 26, 2019), fig. 2 (color) [https://www.latribunedelart.com/le-legs-wrightsman-au-metropolitan-3-peintures-et-pastel-francais-du-xixe].

Maîtres anciens & du XIXe siècle: Tableaux, dessins, sculptures. Artcurial, Paris. November 9, 2022, p. 194, under no. 239.

Related works:
Etching, image: 11 5/8 x 9 in. (29.3 x 22.9 cm.). Plate 9 from the suite Othello, published by Eugène Piot, Paris, 1844. Sandoz 1974, no. 279; see Jay M. Fisher, Théodore Chassériau: Illustrations for Othello, exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art, 1979, pp. 90–101. There are no less than sixteen studies for the etching, most in the Louvre, but no known preparatory drawings for the painting.

Oil on wood, 18 x 12 cm. Signed and dated 1849. Formerly in the collection of baron Arthur Chassériau; sale, Christie's, London, November 18, 2004, no. 22. Sandoz 1974, no. 123. More loosely brushed than the present work.

Oil on canvas, 35 x 27 cm. 1849. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. RF 3876. Sandoz 1974, no. 121. Grisaille study.

Oil on wood, 33 x 25.5 cm. Signed and dated 1850. Formerly in the collection of baron Vignal, Bordeaux; French private collection (in 1976); exh. Paris 1976.

Possibly another version in oil (whereabouts unknown; see Tinterow and Miller 2005, p. 365, n. 7).

This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.