ALEXANDRE CABANEL | DESDÉMONE

M. J. Hobart Warren, Hoosac Falls, New York, circa 1880 (by?, circa 1880)

Hariette Mott Warren (by descent from the above, her husband, until 1913)

Sale: Morgan, Paris, 1886

Sale: Christie’s, New York, February 23, 1989, lot 117, illustrated (as An Arab Beauty)

The Aldine, The Art Journal of America, 1874, illustrated

Edward Strahan, ed., The Art Treasures of America, Philadelphia, [1879-1882], facsimile edition, 1977, vol. III, p. 124, illustrated following p. 118

Alice Meynell, "Alexander Cabanel", Magazine of the Arts, no. 9, May 1886, p. 273, illustrated

Clarence Cook, Art and Artists of Our Time, New York, 1888, vol. 1, p. 74, illustrated

Georges Lafenestre, "Alexandre Cabanel", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd, vol. 1, April 1, 1889, p. 278

Inventaire Armand, 1895, no. 10333, illustrated and titled Étude de jeune feme pleurant

Jean Nougaret, "Alexandre Cabanel. Sa vie, son œuvre, essai de catalogue", dissertation, Montpellier, 1962, no. 207, p. 125

Jean Nougaret, "Catalogue sommaire de l'oeuvre peint d'Alexandre Cabanel," Alexandre Cabanel 1823-1889: La tradition du beau, Sylvain Amic and Michel Hilaire, eds., exh. cat., Musée Fabre, Paris; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2010, p. 464, no. 268

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, Desdemona remains faithful to her husband Othello, only to be smothered by him for a supposed adultery. As with many Shakespearean heroines, Desdemona’s beauty, loyalty and untimely end made her a symbol of honor and love and a favored subject of artists such as Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Chassériau and Alexandre Cabanel, who was celebrated for his vivid scenes from literature and history. Desdemona was further immortalized by the great stage actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Ellen Terry. 

The first owner of Desdémone was Mr. J. Hobart Warren of Troy, New York. In The Art Treasures of America, Edward Strahan described Warren’s “small and choice collection” and that the present work was “a tender treatment of a gentle listener, who gives her tears and her soul” to her story (Strahan, p. 124). Warren also owned Cabanel’s The Florentine Poet, that was bequeathed to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, upon the death of his wife, Henriette Mott Warren, in 1923.