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Lot Essay
In Shakespeare's tragedy first performed about 1603, Othello was a highly regarded Moor of Venice who married Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator named Brabantia. The villain Iago leads Othello to believe her unfaithful. Othello smothers her to death before learning of her innocence, after which he kills himself. The story was set to music in operas by Rossini in 1816 and Verdi in 1887.
Despite his tragic demise, Othello embodies all the qualities of the noble military man: courage, honor, and integrity. Based on the image of Othello as the ‘noble savage’, Guillemin’s model combines the Orientalist genre with a clear ethnographic interest in the Middle Eastern culture. A student of Émile Marie Auguste, Guillemin debuted at the Salon of 1870 and won an Honorable Mention for sculpture in 1897. Very few examples of this large bronze are known. Another cast of the same size sold Christie's, London, on 6 March 2014, lot 137 (£26,250).
Despite his tragic demise, Othello embodies all the qualities of the noble military man: courage, honor, and integrity. Based on the image of Othello as the ‘noble savage’, Guillemin’s model combines the Orientalist genre with a clear ethnographic interest in the Middle Eastern culture. A student of Émile Marie Auguste, Guillemin debuted at the Salon of 1870 and won an Honorable Mention for sculpture in 1897. Very few examples of this large bronze are known. Another cast of the same size sold Christie's, London, on 6 March 2014, lot 137 (£26,250).