Othello Relating His Adventures (after painting by Douglas Cowper)

The engraver Edward Francis Finden worked with his brother, William Finden (1787–1852), to produce the Royal Gallery of British Art, a series of reproductive prints dedicated to Queen Victoria. Much like John Boydell’s printed Shakespeare Gallery, the project sought to disseminate the best works of Britain’s living painters for middle-class consumption in the form of engravings. Of this scene from Othello, engraved by Finden himself, a critic wrote, "[it] is a nobly simple composition;—of the drama, and not theatrical. Othello is recounting his battles, sieges, fortunes, to which the gentle Desdemona, seated by her father, seriously inclines.” Finden’s depiction is notable because in the play, this scene occurs offstage; theatrical audiences would not have seen it acted. In act I, scene 3, Othello responds to Brabantio’s suggestion that he has bewitched Desdemona with the recollection:

“She loved me for the dangers I had pass’d, / And I loved her that she did pity them. / This only is the witchcraft I have used.”