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Henry Fuseli |
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Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)One of the leading figures of the English Romantic movement, the Swiss symbolist painter John Henry Fuseli (Fussli) created pictures that explored the darker side of the human psyche. Focusing mainly on history painting, Fuseli drew much of his inspiration from literary sources, notably Shakespeare, Milton and Dante. An important contributor to English figurative painting, after his death he was neglected until his rediscovery by the Expressionists and Surrealists. Fuseli's best work has much of the imaginative intensity of his friend William Blake (1757-1827), although occasionally deficient in technique. Many of Fuseli's paintings are available as prints in the form of poster art. |
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Rome His years in Rome, from 1770 to 1778, influenced him profoundly. He soon found himself at the center of a talented group of like-minded English and continental artists which included Alexander Runciman, Johan Tobias Sergei, and Nicolai Abildgaard. In addition to the Antique, Fuseli studied carefully the works of Michelangelo and certain artists of the Mannerism style, and from these diverse sources forged a distinctive personal aesthetic. The Nightmare In 1786 Fuseli was commissioned to paint nine illustrations for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery (opened 1789). In 1800 he exhibited 47 paintings of subjects from Milton which had occupied him during the 1790s. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1799, Professor of Painting in 1800, and Keeper in 1804. His important contributions to the literature and theory of art included his series of lectures to the students of the Royal Academy and his additions to Pilkington's Lives of the Artists (1805), as well as his book Lectures on Painting (1801) and his translation of Winckelmann's Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (1765). Painting Style Works by Henry Fuseli hang in several of the world's best art museums, including the Louvre (Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking, 1784), the Kunsthaus Zurich (Titania Awakes, Surrounded by Attendant Fairies, 1794),the Detroit Institute of Arts (The Nightmare, 1781), and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Oedipus Cursing His Son Polynices, 1786). |
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