Desdemona's Death-Song
1878/1880
Artist, British, 1828 - 1882

Artwork overview
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Medium
black chalk over traces of red chalk on two joined sheets of blue-green paper
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall (frame size): 127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)
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Accession
2005.76.1
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Catalogue Raisonné
Surtees 1978, nos. 254B and Addenda 254?
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(the artist's studio sale, Christie's London, 12 May 1883, no. 14); Charles Fairfax Murray (probably by 1893 but certainly by 1899); Sir Thomas Wardle (by 1904); (his sale, Leek, Staffordshire, May 1909); W. H. Rider; by descent to his wife; her nephew, J. T. Birch; by descent to his son, W. R. Birch; (sale, Sotheby's London, 20 November 1969, no. 191); (Leger); Robert S. Walker (by 1971); Sir Paul Getty; (his sale, Christie's London, 24th November 2004, no. 4); (Agnew's, London); purchased 2005 by NGA.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1904
Exhibition of Fine Arts, Bradford Art Gallery, London, 1904, no cat.
1973
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Painter and Poet. The Royal Academy of Arts, London and City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham. London, 1973, 77, no. 346.
2006
The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Great Britain, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007, no cat.
2008
Medieval to Modern: Recent Acquisitions of Drawings, Prints, and Illustrated Books, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, no. 103.
Bibliography
1899
Marillier, H. C. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life. London, 1899: 195-196, 255.
1910
Wood, T. Martin. The Drawings of D. G. Rossetti. London, c. 1910: 14 and pl. XXXVI.
1971
Surtees, Virginia. The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Catalogue Raisonné. London, 1971: 150 (no. 254B) and Addenda no. 254.
1980
Elzea, Rowland, ed. The Correspondence between Samuel Bancroft Jr. and Charles Fairfax Murray, 1892 - 1916. Delaware Art Museum Occasional Paper, no. 2. Wilmington, DE (February, 1980): 29.
2006
Sell, Stacey. "Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Desdemona's Death-Song." National Gallery of Art Bulletin, no. 34 (Spring 2006): 18-19.
"Museum Acquisitions 2006: A Selection." Apollo Magazine (December 2006): 43.
2007
Walen, Denise A. "Unpinning Shakespeare." Shakespeare Quarterly 58 (2007): 507, fig. 7.
Inscriptions
upper left in black chalk: Desdemona's / Death-Song; lower right in graphite: hanging sleeve more to side clear of dress 46 6/8 x 29 6/8
Wikidata ID
Q64540776