Desdemona's Death-Song

1878/1880

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Artist, British, 1828 - 1882

One woman sits and bends forward, bracing her elbows on her wide-spread knees as a second woman combs her long hair in this vertical black chalk drawing on pale blue paper. Both have straight, strong noses, wide-set eyes, full, rounded lips, and pointed chins in thin faces. The seated woman’s knees are turned to our left, but she turns her head to look over our left shoulder with her lips parted. Her right arm extends almost straight so her hand lies limp beyond her right knee, and she holds an oval hand mirror tucked against her voluminous skirts in her other hand. The bodice and sleeves of her dress have been taken off, and they hang loosely around her waist. Her chemise has short, loose sleeves, and one bare foot peeks out from under her long skirt. A low table next to her shins, to our left, holds toiletries and bottles, and a bed set up on a platform separates her from the back wall of the room. She sits on the edge of the bed near the footboard. The second woman stands on the floor behind the bed and platform, reaching over the footboard to hold up the first woman’s hair with both hands. The second woman’s dress has long, puffy sleeves and a low, square-cut neckline. Her hair is pulled back under a twisted head band. She leans to one side, coming toward us, to look down at the seated woman from over one shoulder. A tree branch whips around the edge of a swirling curtain in the background to the left. To the right are a round shield and short sword, a lit candle in a tall candlestick, and a crucifix. An in scription in chalk in the top left corner of the drawing reads, “Desdemona’s Death-Song.” Along the bottom edge, more writing reads, “46 6/8 x 29 6/8 hanging sleeve more to side clear of dress.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    black chalk over traces of red chalk on two joined sheets of blue-green paper

  • Credit Line

    New Century Fund and Paul Mellon Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall (frame size): 127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)

  • Accession

    2005.76.1

  • 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


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