When William Shakespeare's tragedies inspired painters, they depicted memorable scenes like Macbeth encountering the witches, King Lear shouting at the stormy skies, and Othello strangled his wife Desdemona in bed. The document discusses paintings illustrating these and other key moments from Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello, providing context on the scenes and quotes from Shakespeare's plays. Artists featured include John Martin, Henry Fuseli, William Blake, and more who found dramatic imagery in Shakespeare's tragic works.

1. Shakespeare’s Tragedies
in Paintings
(1)

3. the kiss between the doomed lovers by Gaetano Previati,
the three witches in a swirl of mist and lightning bolts by John Martin’s,
King Lear shouting to the stormy skies by William Dyce,
Ophelia in the “weeping brook” by John Everett Millais’
when William Shakespeare's beautiful tragedies inspire painters …

4. Macbeth
a Scottish nobleman and his wife murder their king for his throne and the consequences that come from unbridled ambition.
…
Three witches appear out of a storm ....

5. an cosmic stage ….
an supernatural figures fly out from a swirl of mist and streaks of lightning.
Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches …
…
Act 1 Scene 3
Banquo. - What are these, So withered, and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ Earth
And yet are on ’t? Live you? Or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
John Martin
Macbeth
Macbeth, Banquo et les sorcières
1820
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

10. Similar in appearance, with thin lips
and vaguely androgynous features ...
By predicting Macbeth’s future, the three witches
push him to his downfall as he turns
into a power-hungry tyrant.
Henry Fuseli
The Three Witches
Les Trois Sorcières
1783
Kunsthaus, Zürich

13. an unusual depictions of Shakespeare ...
a woman wrapped in a white funeral shroud,
a pair of white horses galloping through the air with two riders,
the nearest rider reaching out to lift a miniature human figure:
the 'naked newborn'.
...
Somewhere in the castle ...
Macbeth sits alone, contemplating the murder of King Duncan,
struggles with his conscience ...
…
Act 1 Scene 7
Macbeth.- And pity, like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.
...
Lady Macbeth berates Macbeth for his cowardice …
and Macbeth is ‘settled’ to kill Duncan
William Blake
Pity
La Pitié
1795
The Tate Gallery, London

16. Macbeth staggers forward, staring in horror, and still grasping
the bloody daggers ...
and Lady Macbeth seizes control.
…
Act 2 Scene 2
Lady Macbeth. - Go get some water
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macbeth. - I am afraid to think what I have done.
Look on ’t again I dare not.
Lady Macbeth. - Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures.
Henry Fuseli
Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers or Lady Macbeth Receives the Daggers
Lady Macbeth saisissant les poignards
1812
The Tate Gallery, London

20. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth host a banquet for the Scottish thanes.
During the banquet, Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo sitting
at his place at the table. He is horrified.
…
Act 3 Scene 4
Macbeth. – (to the Ghost)
Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee.
Thy bones are marrowless; thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with.
…
Macbeth decides to visit the witches the next day …
Théodore Chassériau
Le Spectre de Banquo
Banquo’s Ghost
1854-1855
Musée des beaux-arts de Reims, Reims

23. …
Act 4 Scene 1
The three witches. - Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
...
Macbeth visits the witches and they show him three apparitions:
an armed head appears saying that Macbeth should ‘beware Macduff’,
a bloody child saying ‘none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’,
a crowned child holding a tree saying that he will never
be defeated ‘until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill shall
come against him’.
Eugène Delacroix
Macbeth consultant les sorcières
Macbeth Consulting the Witches
1825
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

26. A doctor and Lady Macduff’s gentlewoman watch Lady Macbeth sleepwalk.
As she walks in, she rubs her hands and tries to wash a ‘damned spot’
of blood from her hands.
…
Act 5 Scene 1
Doctor. - What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.
Gentlewoman. - It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing
her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
Lady Macbeth. - Yet here’s a spot.
...
Lady Macbeth. - Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia
will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O!
Johann Heinrich Füssli
Lady Macbeth marchant dans son sommeil, dit aussi Lady Macbeth somnambule
Lady Macbeth
1784
Musée du Louvre, Paris

27. Seyton returns to let Macbeth know his wife is dead. This inspires Macbeth to launch into one of Shakespeare's and literature’s
…
Act 5 Scene 5
Macbeth. - … Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more;
it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

28. and ...
A messenger informs Macbeth that he has seen Birnam Wood moving towards Dunsinane hill.
…
Act 5 Scene 5
Messenger. - As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought
The Wood began to move.
Macbeth. - ...“Fear not till Birnam Wood Do come to Dunsinane,” and now a wood Comes toward Dunsinane.
... Ring the alarum bell! - Blow wind, come wrack, At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

31. King Lear
a king who divides his realm between his three daughters based on how much each daughter loves him
…
Goneril and Regan lie and exaggerate. Lear casts out Cordelia ...

32. Cordelia is renounced by her father.
Joined by her two sisters dressed in black and red,
Cordelia is the only feminine character wearing white robes,
symbolizing her purity.
…
Act 1 Scene 1
Cordelia. - love your Majesty According to my bond,
no more nor less.
Edwin Austin Abbey
Cordelia’s Farewell
Les adieux de Cordélia
1898
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

35. an memorable scene ...
Lear shouts at the stormy skies …
…
Act 3 Scene 2
Lear. - Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched
our steeples, drowned the cocks.
... - And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world.
Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once That makes ungrateful man.
William Dyce
King Lear and the Fool in the Storm
Le roi Lear et son fou pendant la tempête
1851
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

39. Lear, locked in his painful dementia ...
Words of madness follow speeches of revolt and desperate words.
…
Act 4 Scene 6
Lear. - When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage
of fools.
... - And when I have stol’n upon these son-in-laws,
Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
...
Kent leads Lear to the French army, commanded by Cordelia.
Cordelia embraces him and declares her tenderness for him.
After these soothing words, the king gradually regains his senses
and learns that he is in his own land and not in France.
Benjamin West
King Lear and Cordelia (Act IV Scene 7)
Le roi Lear et Cordélia
1793
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

42. The battle has taken place.
The English are victorious.
Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned.
Edmund orders Cordelia to be killed.
William Blake
Lear and Cordelia in Prison
Lear et Cordélia dans la prison
1779
The Tate Gallery, London

45. Edmund is dying, and reveals that he has given orders for Lear
and Cordelia to be killed.
Albany quickly dispatches men to try and save her, but it is too late.
Lear appears, with Cordelia's body in his arms, and deludes himself
by seeing a feather move with the breath of his child.
But Cordelia is dead and Lear's heart breaks.
…
Act 5 Scene 3
Lear. –
… - And thou no breath at all? Thou ’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never.
Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.
Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
Look there, look there!
(He dies.)
James Barry
King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia
Lear pleurant la mort de Cordélia
1786-1788
The Tate Gallery, London

48. Othello
a successful Venetian general who is tricked into suspecting his wife of adultery.
…
Othello is accused of seducing Desdemona by witchcraft ...

49. Othello recounting to Desdemona his life
…
Act 1 Scene 3
Othello. -She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Here comes the lady. Let her witness it.
…
The Duke sends Othello to defend Cyprus from the Turks,
and Desdemona goes with him.
Théodore Chassériau
Othello et Desdémone à Venise
Othello and Desdemona in Venice
1850
Musée du Louvre, Paris

53. Othello's strange questioning ...
…
Iago begins to sow seeds of suspicion in Othello’s mind, subtly at first:
Act 3 Scene 3
Iago. - O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
…
Othello fights against these suspicions.
Iago leaves Othello convinced of his wife’s infidelity
James Clarke Hook
Othello's First Suspicion
Les premiers soupçons d'Othello
1849
Private Collection

56. Desdemona seems to sense the fatal fate that awaits her ...
…
Act 4 Scene 3
Emilia. - I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed.
Desdemona. - All’s one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds!
If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me In one of those same sheets.
Théodore Chassériau
Le coucher de Desdémone
Desdemona Retiring to her Bed
1849
Musée du Louvre, Paris

59. Desdemona is asleep on her bed. Othello he kisses her and she wakes up.
He urges her to confess, but he refuses to believe her.
…
Act 5 Scene 2
Othello.- Out, strumpet! Weep's thou for him to my face?
Desdemona.- O banish me, my lord, but kill me not!
Othello.- Down, strumpet!
Desdemona.- But while I say one prayer!
Othello.- It is too late.
(He smothers her.)
Alexandre Marie Colin
Othello et Desdémone
Othello and Desdemona
1829
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans

62. …
Act 5 Scene 2
Othello. -
(He stabs himself.)
Lodovico. - O bloody period!
Gratiano. - All that is spoke is marred.
Othello. (to Desdemona)
- I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
(He dies.)
William Salter
Othello’s Lamentation
La Lamentation d’Othello
1857
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

64. o.esqsegues@gmail.com
Shakespeare’s Tragedies in Paintings (1)
Les tragédies de William Shakespeare dans la peinture (1)
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Music Loreena McKennitt - La Serenissima
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