Ludovico Marchetti

Ludovico Marchetti (10 May 1853, Rome - 20 June 1909, Paris) was an Italian-born painter of genre scenes, who spent most of his life in France.

His artistic education began in the studios of Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish painter who lived in Rome during the 1870s.

Shortly after completing his studies there, in 1878, aged twenty-five, he moved to France, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

His favorite subjects were the cavaliers, troubadours and courtiers of the 18th century, dramatically re-imagined with richly colored clothes and fine fabrics.

Today, he may be best remembered for the illustrations he created for a popular reprinting of Shakespeare's plays; notably Othello and Romeo and Juliet.