Oh! Oh! Oh!, plate fourteen from Othello
Medium
Etching, engraving and roulette on ivory China paper, laid down on white wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 31.5 × 24.6 cm (12 7/16 × 9 11/16 in.); Plate: 36.5 × 26.2 cm (14 3/8 × 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 64 × 49 cm (25 1/4 × 19 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
61331
Art Historical Context
Théodore Chasséri, a prodigious French artist of the Romantic era (1819–1856), created *Oh! Oh! Oh!*, plate fourteen from his1844 series of etch illustrating William Shakespeare's tragedy *Othello*. At just 25 years old Chassériau drew inspiration from the play's raw emotional turmoil—here capturing a moment of anguished outcry amid jealousy and betrayal. His illustrations bridged neoclassical precision, learned from his teacher Ingres, with the dramatic intensity of Delacroix, reflecting the 19th-century Romantic fascination with Shakespearean drama and exotic, passionate narratives. This pr...
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...