Othello Hesitating to Kill Desdemona

ca. 1795–1810

Not on view

The plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) gained considerable popularity in France in the 1790s with the productions of Jean-François Ducis, a dramatist who staged a successful adaptation of Othello in Paris in 1792. François Gérard, one of Jacques Louis David’s most successful students, here tries out ideas for depicting the scene where the Moor Othello prepares to murder his sleeping wife, Desdemona after a malicious plot has convinced him that she has been unfaithful. In a vigorous and calligraphic ink line, Gérard experiments with variations on Desdemona’s pose in small sketches across the sheet. The verso of the sheet features a similar mix of studies for the same scene.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Othello Hesitating to Kill Desdemona
Artist: baron François Gérard (French, Rome 1770–1837 Paris)
Date: ca. 1795–1810
Medium: Pen and brown ink over black chalk
Dimensions: 6 7/8 × 8 11/16 in. (17.5 × 22 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Stephen A. Geiger, 2021
Object Number: 2021.165.1
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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