CHASSÉRIAU, Théodore
(b. 1819, Sainte-Barbe de Samana, d. 1856, Paris)

Desdemona Retiring to her Bed

1849
Oil on canvas, 42 x 32 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

The painting takes its themes from Shakespeare, borrowing the composition that Chassériau established in the eighth of the Othello prints that he engraved in 1844. Unfairly accused of faithlessness by her husband, the Moor Othello, a general in the service of the Venetian Republic, Desdemona has a premonition of her imminent death.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.