If I Do Die Before Thee, plate eight from Othello
Medium
Etching, engraving and drypoint on off-white China paper, laid down on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 28.5 × 21.5 cm (11 1/4 × 8 1/2 in.); Sheet: 29.2 × 22.3 cm (11 1/2 × 8 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
40801
Art Historical Context
In the Prints and Drawings department of the Art Institute of Chicago, Théodore Chassériau *If I Do Die Before, plate eight from Othello* (1844) captures a poignant moment from Shakespeare's tragedy. This etching draws from the play's climactic scene where Othello bids Desdemona to shroud him in her bedsheets if he dies first, evoking themes of love, jealousy, and doom. At just 25, Chassériau—a prodigious French artist blending Romantic passion with Neoclassical precision—included this as part of a rare series of eight prints inspired by Othello, showcasing his early mastery of dramatic narrat...
About the Artist
Théodore Chassériau · 1819–1856
Théodore Chassériau was born on September 20, 1819, in El Limón, Samaná, in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo — present-day Dominican Republic — to a French father and a Creole mother. The family relocated to Paris in 1820, and the young Chassériau's exceptional talent was evident almost immediately. At just eleven years old, in 1830, he was accepted into the prestigious studio of Jean-Auguste-D...