Henry Fuseli

Leaving Zurich in 1763, Fuseli travelled through Germany, England, and France. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1768, encouraged Fuseli to abandon his literary aspirations and become a painter. Fuseli travelled to Italy in 1770, seeking inspiration from classical sculpture, Michelangelo, and Mannerism. Returning to London a decade later, in 1781 he debuted his Nightmare (Detroit Institute of Arts); in the grips of a nightmare, the recumbent sleeping female subject is gripped by the terrifying creature menacing her, yet powerless in her panicked slumber.

In 1786, Fuseli joined in John Boydell’s plan for a gallery of pictures of Shakespearean themes; most successful was Titania and Bottom (Tate Britain, London). In the 1790s, Fuseli created forty-seven paintings for a gallery inspired by subjects from Milton’s Paradise Lost. Meanwhile, Fuseli was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1788, Full Academician in 1790 and Professor of Painting in 1799; he resigned from this latter post after his election as Guardian in 1804 but resumed it in 1810.

Fuseli was a prolific draftsman. His drawings were fundamental to exploring the anatomical, gestural, and psychological boundaries found in his paintings. Bizarre, extravagant, and theatrical, his drawings approach their often obscure literary and historical subjects with the intention of prompting a profound emotional response. Unlike the slick surfaces of his paintings, his drawings vibrate with a sense of passionate verve and a sense of exploration, of poses, gestures, facial expressions, and composition.

Fuseli was also obsessed by more private drawings of women. Many of the women he drew were courtesans—exchanging art for pleasure, their bodies were nonetheless his medium. Nature and artifice, especially fashion, intermingle. Fuseli borrowed from fashion plates, yet he often clad his sitters in insubstantial Empire dresses—referring to classical culture—while luxurious accessories and fantastical hairdos often reference Roman sculpture, abound. Such drawings emphasize the women’s’ physicality, exploring a range of body types, often taking a rear view, sometimes interpreted as a signal that the world had fallen into disorder.