Yet She Must Die, plate eleven from Othello
Medium
Etching, engraving, roulette and drypoint on ivory chine, laid down on white wove paper (chine collé)
Dimensions
Image: 31.2 × 24.2 cm (12 5/16 × 9 9/16 in.); Chine: 31.8 × 25 cm (12 9/16 × 9 7/8 in.); Plate: 36.5 × 26.4 cm (14 3/8 × 10 7/16 in.); Sheet: 39.4 × 28.4 cm (15 9/16 × 11 3/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
40788
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Shakespeare’s Othello tells the story of a Moorish general who is manipulated by his evil advisor, Iago, into murdering his wife, Desdemona. In this scene set in a lavish chamber, Othello gazes upon the slumbering Desdemona with a look of unmistakable sadness. Chassériau elegantly depicted the conflict within Othello’s mind through gesture, as he clutches at his heart. The emphatic way the figure of Othello is rendered in almost total darkness, in contrast to Desdemona’s blinding whiteness, reca...
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...