Fotoreproductie van een prent naar een schilderij door James Graham, voorstellend een scene uit Othello door William Shakespeare before 1867

Stephen Ayling made this photogravure reproduction of an image after James Graham depicting a scene from Shakespeare’s Othello. The image presents Othello with a raised dagger, ready to murder Desdemona as she lies sleeping in her bed. It carries potent visual and cultural codes. For instance, the bedchamber suggests themes of intimacy, vulnerability, and betrayal. This image raises questions about the representation of violence, race, and gender within the arts. Created at a time when Shakespeare was being institutionalized as Britain’s national bard, this reproduction would have circulated among a middle-class audience eager to consume culture. Perhaps it served as a signifier of social status and a symbol of national pride. The images and literature of prior eras often tell us as much about the time in which they were reproduced as they do about their original moment. To better understand the role of this image, one might delve into the history of theater, the publishing industry, and Shakespearean scholarship.