"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)

"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)

Théodore Chassériau

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

After Delacroix’s successful Hamlet lithographs appeared in 1843, Chassériau responded with a series of etchings devoted to Shakespeare’s Othello. This example encapsulates the play’s climax in act 5, in which the title character is undone by his tragic error concerning his wife, Desdemona. Having smothered her, he now kneels despairingly by the bed as her attendant Emilia reveals that "honest Iago," who told Othello she had been unfaithful, is a jealous manipulator: "Now lay thee down and roar. / For thou has killed the sweetest innocent, / That did ever lift up eye." By choosing etching, Chassériau was able to both include fine detail and convey his expressive conception of form.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)"Oh! Oh! Oh!": plate 14 from Othello (Act 5, Scene 2)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.