Desdemona’s Bedchamber (Othello, Act V, Scene ii). Sir Frank Dicksee, 1853–1928. Oil on canvas. Signed with the artist’s initials lower right corner. Source: Gallery of Shakespeare Illustrations. [Click on the image to enlarge it].
Convinced by his henchman, Iago, that the blameless Desdemona has committed adultery, Othello pulls aside the bed-curtain with one hand and grips his sword in the other, ready to dispatch her. His shadow looks large on the fabric beside him. But, overwrought as he is, he cannot help being struck by such an appearance of angelic innocence, and knows that if he kills her, nothing can bring her back again. Dicksee's skilful use of light and shade here brilliantly captures Othello's words in the opening soliloquy of the scene:
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore,
Should I repent me: but once put out thy light,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume.
Dennis T. Lanigan passes on the information that a watercolour sketch for this illustration is in the collection of Scott Thomas Buckle.
Related Material
- Dicksee's Iago
- Othello, an oil-painting by William Mulready
- Othello and Iago, a watercolour by Solomon Alexander Hart
- Desdemona, an oil-painting by Augustus L. Egg (also produced as an engraving)
Image scan and caption by George P. Landow; text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Trust and the Library of Congress and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Gallery of Shakespeare Illustrations from Celebrated Works of Art. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1909. Hathi Trust online version of a copy in the Library of Congress. Web. 12 August 2021.
Created 12 August 2021; last modified 15 July 2026