"Therefore, be merry Cassio": plate 6 from Othello (Act 3, Scene 3)
Théodore Chassériau|William Shakespeare
1844 · Etching, engraving, roulette, drypoint on chine collé; first edition of 1844 · Drawings and Prints
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, Desdemona promises to plead Cassio's cause with Othello, not realizing that this will fatally strengthen her husband's unfounded belief that she and Cassio are lovers.
- Artist
- Théodore Chassériau|William Shakespeare
- Date
- 1844
- Medium
- Etching, engraving, roulette, drypoint on chine collé; first edition of 1844
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- The Elisha Whittelsey Collection. The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
