Opera Reminiscences, Plate 1st: Desdemona and Otello

William Heath ('Paul Pry')

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Desdemona stands at left, one arm outstretched towards Otello, who wears Turkish costume, has his arms raised and his mouth open as if in song. Rossini's opera was based on a French adaption of the story, rather than directly on Shakespera's play, and was first performed in London in 1822.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art