Othello Hesitating to Kill Desdemona

baron François Gérard

ca. 1795–1810 · Pen and brown ink over black chalk · Drawings and Prints

The plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) gained considerable popularity in France in the 1790s with the productions of Jean-François Ducis, a dramatist who staged a successful adaptation of Othello in Paris in 1792. François Gérard, one of Jacques Louis David’s most successful students, here tries out ideas for depicting the scene where the Moor Othello prepares to murder his sleeping wife, Desdemona after a malicious plot has convinced him that she has been unfaithful. In a vigorous and calligraphic ink line, Gérard experiments with variations on Desdemona’s pose in small sketches across the sheet. The verso of the sheet features a similar mix of studies for the same scene.

Artist

baron François Gérard

Date

ca. 1795–1810

Medium

Pen and brown ink over black chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Stephen A. Geiger, 2021