Saturday 25 August 2012

Art, Henry Fuseli




Henry Fuseli
Part of the halloween series
        Henry Fuseli was born at Zürich in Switzerland on February 7, 1741, dies, April 16, 1825;  His father was Johann Caspar Füssli, a painter of portraits and landscapes.
Fuseli was forced to leave Zurich because he was involved in exposing an unjust magistrate and it became unsafe for him to continue living in his home.  He travelled through Germany, and England, where he supported himself by becoming a semi-professional writer. After a while living in London he met Sir Joshua Reynolds and began showing Sir Joshua his many drawings and sketches. On Sir Joshua's advice he began devoting himself to art and worked toward becoming a full time professional painter. In 1770 he visited Italy and remained there until 1778. He even changed his name from Füssli to Fuseli, because it was more Italian-sounding. In 1779 he returned to Britain, visiting Zürich on his way. He found a commission awaiting him from Alderman Boydell, who was then organizing his famous Shakespeare gallery. He also gave William Cowper some valuable assistance in preparing a translation of Homer. In 1788 Fuseli married Sophia Rawlins (originally one of his models), and soon after became an associate of the Royal Academy. Two years later he was promoted to Academician.
In 1799 Fuseli exhibited a series of paintings of the works of John Milton. He planned to form a Milton gallery run along similar lines to Boydell's Shakespeare gallery. He did a total of 47 Milton paintings, many of them very large, taking over 9 years to complete all of them. In 1805 he brought out an edition of Pilkington's Lives of the Painters, which was not that well received by his critics. During his lifetime he produced many works depicting the darker side of human nature and it is these ‘dark’ paintings he is most remembered for today. Fuseli, after a life of uninterrupted good health, died at Putney Hill on April 16, 1825, and was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. He was comparatively rich at his death.
 
As his subject matter Fuseli favoured the supernatural. His paintings have a ’supernatural’ quality to them partly due to the combination of ‘unreal’ subject and very realistic technique. His paintings tended to be large, domineering canvases and his painting technique was often experimental. Much of his painting is the result of ‘happy accidents’. He was in the habit of applying almost dry paint/pigment to his brush and then mixing, on his brush, it with oil or turpentine immediately before applying it to the canvas. His talent as a draughtsman allowed his to use these experimental paint effects on top of technically perfect drawings. His work achieves such spectacular effect by combinations of the orthodox and unorthodox.  He combined good quality drawing and unorthodox paint methods, he combined supernatural subject matter with total realism, it was this combination of opposites that left his work with something very special.

More paintings and full size painting found here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/199/Henry_Fuseli_paintings_illustrations



The Nightmare (1782)       

Lady Macbeth (1784)

The Shepherd's Dream (1793)


The Three Witches (1783)

Thor battering the Midgard Serpent (1790)

Titania and the Fairies (1793)


The Night-Hag Visiting Lapland Witches (1796)


Macbeth consulting the Vision of the Armed Head (1794)    

Oedipus Cursing His Son (1786)


The Dream of Eve (1804)  

An Old Man Murdered by Three Younger Men (1770)
   

elizelizeliz wrote on Nov 2, '08
Thankin u agan. U reyels conosur.
dianahopeless wrote on Oct 31, '08
Great post for your Halloween series!
starfishred wrote on Oct 29, '08
He was a really interesting person who stayed true to his ideals and painted them
thanks so much for showing him.
greenwytch wrote on Oct 29, '08
very cool indeed!
msowens1 wrote on Oct 29, '08
perfect timing for this info/blog.... cool.....

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