Projet d'illustration pour Macbeth - Hécate et les trois sorcières 

Luc-Olivier Merson rendered this ink wash drawing as an illustration project for Shakespeare’s Macbeth, though it was never published. It shows Hecate, queen of the witches, meeting with the three weird sisters. Merson was a highly regarded academic painter in France at the end of the nineteenth century, an artist who embraced a conservative aesthetic. He also explored religious and historical subject matter. We might ask, then, why a painter so enmeshed in the French art establishment would turn to Shakespeare and to such dark subject matter. We can appreciate this project as an example of the broader cultural phenomenon of fascination with the occult at the turn of the century, as well as the enduring influence of Shakespeare in French culture. To understand this illustration more completely, we would need to ask what other visual sources Merson drew on, and what specific interpretation of Macbeth this drawing reflects. The work of the art historian involves delving into these questions of cultural and institutional context to uncover the complex meaning of art.