Othello's description of Desdemona [graphic] / J. C. Hook.
1852
Items
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPa38
Details
Title
Othello's description of Desdemona [graphic] / J. C. Hook.
Created/published
ca. 1852.
Description
1 painting on panel : oil ; 78.6 x 54 cm
Associated name
Hook, James Clarke, 1819-1907, artist.
Material base
wood
Note
Signed at lower right: "J C Hook." A piece of paper in pen and ink, perhaps in the artist's hand, is glued to the back of the panel at upper left: "Othello's description of Desdemona. / -An admirable musician! O, she / will sing the savageness out of a bear!- / Of so high and plenteous wit and / invention! / Othello Act 4th Scene 1st. / Painted by Jas C Hook A.R.A. / Tor Villa / Campden Hill / Kensington" (Tor Villa is the house that Hook had just built for himself)
Title from Pressly.
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It contains unverified data from a re-keying contract and may contain incorrect or incomplete information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Title from Pressly.
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It contains unverified data from a re-keying contract and may contain incorrect or incomplete information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Publications about material
The Times, 14 May 1852, p. 6; The Art Journal, 1 June 1852, p. 169; The Athenaeum, 3 July 1852, p. 129; The Dictionary of National Biography, London, Supplement (1912; reprinted 1927), vol. 2, p. 294, this painting and two others cited as the best-known pictures of his early period; Altick 1985, p. 307.
A small oil sketch on panel (9 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.) was sold at Sotheby's Belgravia on 19 November 1974, lot 139, repr. It was inscribed on its reverse: "[to] P. F. Poole A.R.A. from J. C. Hook."
A small oil sketch on panel (9 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.) was sold at Sotheby's Belgravia on 19 November 1974, lot 139, repr. It was inscribed on its reverse: "[to] P. F. Poole A.R.A. from J. C. Hook."
Condition
Losses to inner and outer beads on frame. Ornaments appear to have been re-adhered in the past. The oil painting is executed on a thick, primed wood panel. The panel is relatively flat. Two paper labels are adhered to the panel reverse. They are to be removed and conserved by Folger conservators. In normal light, the surface is visibly dusty, but otherwise in good condition. Curatorial file available.
Source of acquisition
G. Michelmore & Co., Rare Books, Autographs, Manuscripts, 5 Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London SW1, July 1925, £100. (A printed text, listing this picture as no. 14, has been cut out and pasted on the back of the panel at lower left. The entry may well be clipped from an auction catalogue)
Exhibited
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1852, no. 210; 'Eliz. View of Italy,' Mar.-Jun.93; As imagination bodies forth...' [paintings] Oct.28, 1993-Feb.15, 1994.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 40 (Plate 17)
Linked resources
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPa38
Genre/form
Paintings.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FPa38 (rack A-1A)
Folger-specific note
Curatorial file available.
Folger accession
cs1444