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"He smothers her": plate 13 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)

Subject William Shakespeare British
etched 1844, reprinted 1900
Not on view
In 1844 Eugène Piot commissioned the young Chassériau to prepare fifteen illustrations to Shakespeare's Othello. Inspired by a series of ground-breaking Hamlet lithographs that Delacroix had created one year earlier, the younger artist opted for the more linear technique of etching. His expressive conception of form had been learned in Ingres's studio then developed under Delacroix. In the series, key exchanges offer a compressed summary of much of the play, with a final cluster devoted to the tragic conclusion. Here, Othello smothers Desdemona, convinced by the jealous Iago that she is an adultress.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: "He smothers her": plate 13 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)
  • Series/Portfolio: Suite of fifteen prints: Shakespeare's Othello / Quinze Esquisses à l'eau forte dessinées et gravées par Théodore Chasseriau
  • Artist: Théodore Chassériau (French, Le Limon, Saint-Domingue, West Indies 1819–1856 Paris)
  • Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
  • Date: etched 1844, reprinted 1900
  • Medium: Etching and engraving on chine collé; second edition (Gazette des Beaux-Arts)
  • Dimensions: plate: 13 11/16 x 9 3/4 in. (34.7 x 24.8 cm)
    image: 9 13/16 x 8 15/16 in. (25 x 22.7 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932
  • Object Number: 32.7.13
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau French, Oil on canvas
Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine
Théodore Chassériau
1851
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
The Holy Family, Josef Kohlschein German, Etching and engraving on chine collé
The Holy Family
Josef Kohlschein
After Franz Ittenbach
mid 19th–19th century
Portrait of Félix Ravaisson, Théodore Chassériau French, Graphite on white wove paper darkened to buff
Portrait of Félix Ravaisson
Théodore Chassériau
1846
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat, Edgar Degas French, Graphite and black chalk
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat
Edgar Degas
Sitter Edouard Manet
ca. 1868

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