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{{Short description|Swiss-born British painter, draughtsman and writer (1741–1825)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_suffix = [[List of Royal Academicians|RA]]
| image            = Henry Fuseli by James Northcote.jpg
| caption          = Henry Fuseli, 1778. Portrait by [[James Northcote (painter)|James Northcote]].
| birth_name       = Johann Heinrich Füssli
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1741|2|7|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Zürich]], [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Switzerland]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=y|1825|4|17|1741|2|7}}
| death_place      = [[Putney|Putney Hill]], London, England
| movement         = [[Romanticism]]
| notable_works    = ''[[The Nightmare]]''
| patrons          = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|Sophia Rawlins|1788}}
| awards           = 
}}

'''Henry Fuseli''' {{Post-nominals|post-noms=[[List of Royal Academicians|RA]]}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|juː|z|ə|l|i|,_|f|juː|ˈ|z|ɛ|l|i}} {{respell|FEW|zə|lee|,_|few|ZEL|ee}};<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Fuseli|access-date=14 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fuseli|title=Fuseli|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=14 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Fuseli,+Henry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925004648/https://www.lexico.com/definition/fuseli,_henry |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-09-25 |title=Fuseli, Henry |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{langx|de|'''Johann Heinrich Füssli'''|italic=no}} {{IPA|de|ˈjoːhan ˈhaɪ̯nʁɪç ˈfyːsli|}}; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, [[drawing|draughtsman]], and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain.

Many of his successful works depict supernatural experiences, such as ''[[The Nightmare]]''. He produced painted works for [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery|John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery]] and his own "Milton Gallery". He held the posts of Professor of Painting and Keeper at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]]. His style had a considerable influence on many younger British artists, including [[William Blake]].

==Biography==
[[File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 011.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent]]'' was Fuseli's diploma work for the [[Royal Academy]], accepted 1790.]]

Fuseli was born on 7 February 1741, in [[Zürich]], the second of 18 children.<ref name="eb1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle= Fuseli, Henry |volume= 11 |last= Rossetti |first= William Michael |author-link= William Michael Rossetti | page= 368 }}</ref> Among his brothers and sisters were [[Johann Kaspar Füssli|Johann Kaspar]] and [[Anna Füssli|Anna]]. His father was [[Johann Caspar Füssli]], a painter of portraits and landscapes, and author of ''Lives of the [[Helvetia|Helvetic]] Painters''. He intended Henry for the church, and sent him to the Caroline college of Zürich, where he received a classical education.<ref>[https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.2513.html Henry Fuseli at The National Gallery of Art]</ref> One of his schoolmates there was [[Johann Kaspar Lavater]], with whom he became close friends.

After taking [[Holy orders|orders]] in 1761, Fuseli was forced to leave the country as a result of having helped Lavater to expose an unjust magistrate, whose powerful family sought revenge. He travelled through Germany, and then, in 1765, visited England, where he supported himself for some time by miscellaneous writing. Eventually, he became acquainted with Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]], to whom he showed his drawings. Following Reynolds' advice, he decided to devote himself entirely to art. In 1770 he made an art-pilgrimage to Italy, where he remained until 1778, changing his name from Füssli to the more Italian-sounding Fuseli.<ref name="eb1911"/> In [[Rome]] he moved in the same circles as the Scottish artist [[Alexander Runciman]] and the Swedish sculptor [[Tobias Sergel]].<ref>Macmillan, Duncan (2023), ''Scotland and the Origins of Modern Art'', [[Lund Humphries]], London, pp. 65–71, {{isbn|978-1-84822-633-3}}</ref>

In early 1779, he returned to Britain, visiting Zürich on the way. In London, he found a commission awaiting him from Alderman [[John Boydell]], who was then setting up his [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery|Shakespeare Gallery]]. Fuseli painted a number of pieces for Boydell,<ref>[https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.2513.html Henry Fuseli at The National Gallery of Art]</ref> and supervised the first English edition of Lavater's work on [[physiognomy]].<ref>LAVATER, John Caspar. Essays on Physiognomy, designed to promote the Knowledge and Love of Mankind. Translated by Henry Hunter, D. D. Lond. 1789-98, royal 4to. In 41 nos. forming 5 vols. "A sumptuous Edition, executed by, and under the inspection of, Thomas Holloway. The translation and engravings were under the superintendence of the celebrated H. Fuseli, R.A., at whose solicitation Lavater furnished an entire fresh set of Drawings in quarto, to suite the prevailing taste of the public, it having been originally intended for folio size. The Engravings were executed by Thos. Holloway, Bartolozzi, Wm. Blake, and other eminent artists. […]" In: [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwfyf4&seq=179&q1=Essays+on+physiognomy ''The bibliographer's manual of English literature'' by William Thomas Lowndes volume 5]</ref><ref>''Advertisement'' [by Henry Fuseli]. In: ''Essays on physiognomy; designed to promote the knowledge and the love of mankind''. London: 1789-1798 (first edition). pp. [III-VIII]. Weblink: [https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hdwza8s9/items?canvas=11 Wellcome Collection].</ref> He also gave [[William Cowper]] some valuable assistance in preparing a translation of [[Homer]]. In 1788, Fuseli married [[:File:Sophia Rawlins by Henry Fuseli.jpg|Sophia Rawlins]] (originally one of his models), and he soon after became an associate of the [[Royal Academy]].<ref name="eb1911"/> The early feminist [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], whose portrait he had painted, planned a trip with him to Paris, and pursued him determinedly, but communication between the two was stopped by Rawlins. Fuseli later said "I hate clever women. They are only troublesome".<ref>Myrone, Martin (2001) ''Henry Fuseli''. London: Tate Gallery Publishing, p. 53. {{ISBN|1854373579}}</ref> In 1790, he became a full [[academician]], presenting ''[[Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent]]'' as his [[Reception piece|diploma work]].<ref>[http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXSESSION_=JZYSvRhQvBq&_IXSR_=&_IXACTION_=display&_MREF_=20058&_IXSP_=1&_IXFPFX_=templates/full/&_IXSPFX_=templates/full/''Thor battering the Midgard Serpent'', 1790.] Royal Academy of Arts Collections, 5 February 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2014. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220606091322/http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXSR_=2PVvAuJG9B2&_IXSP_=0&_MREF_=20056&_IXSS_=_IXSESSION_%3DZKJdpK0qDY5&%2Asform=%2Fsearch_form%2Fallform&_IXresults_=y&exhibitions=true&_IXACTION_=query&all_fields=THOR+BATTERIN Archived here.]</ref> In 1799 Fuseli was appointed professor of painting to the Academy. Four years later he was chosen as Keeper, and resigned his professorship, but resumed it in 1810, continuing to hold both offices until his death.<ref name="eb1911"/> He was succeeded as keeper by [[Henry Thomson (painter)|Henry Thomson]].

In 1799, Fuseli exhibited a series of paintings from subjects furnished by the works of [[John Milton]], with a view to forming a Milton gallery comparable to Boydell's Shakespeare gallery. There were 47 Milton paintings, many of them very large, completed at intervals over nine years. The exhibition proved a commercial failure and closed in 1800. In 1805 he brought out an edition of [[Matthew Pilkington]]'s ''Lives of the Painters'', which did little for his reputation.<ref name="eb1911"/>{{Explain|date=August 2022}}

[[Antonio Canova]], when on his visit to England, was much taken with Fuseli's works, and on returning to Rome in 1817 caused him to be elected a member of the first class in the [[Accademia di San Luca]].<ref name="eb1911"/>

==Works==
As a painter, Fuseli favoured the supernatural. He pitched everything on an ideal scale, believing a certain amount of exaggeration necessary in the higher branches of historical painting. In this theory he was confirmed by the study of [[Michelangelo]]'s works and [[Horse Tamers|the marble statues of the Monte Cavallo]],<ref name="eb1911"/><ref>[http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi61.html Papal Palace on Monte Cavallo, Rome]. Retrieved 28 December 2011.</ref> which, when at [[Rome]], he liked to contemplate in the evening, relieved against a murky sky or illuminated by lightning.<ref name="eb1911"/>

Describing his style, [[William Michael Rossetti]] in the 1911 [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]] said that:<blockquote>His figures are full of life and earnestness, and seem to have an object in view which they follow with intensity. Like [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] he excelled in the art of setting his figures in motion. Though the lofty and terrible was his proper sphere, Fuseli had a fine perception of the ludicrous. The grotesque humour of his fairy scenes, especially those taken from ''A Midsummer-Night's Dream'', is in its way not less remarkable than the poetic power of his more ambitious works.<ref name="eb1911"/></blockquote>

Though not noted as a colourist,<ref name="eb1911"/> Fuseli was described as a master of light and shadow.<ref>{{cite book|last=Leslie |first=C. R. |type=Letter to Miss Leslie December 1816|title=Autobiographical Recollections|editor=Tom Taylor|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|location=Boston|year=1855}}</ref> Rather than setting out his palette methodically in the manner of most painters, he merely distributed the colours across it randomly. He often used his pigments in the form of a dry powder, which he hastily combined on the end of his brush with oil, or [[turpentine]], or [[Water gilding|gold size]], regardless of the quantity, and depending on accident for the general effect. This recklessness may perhaps be explained by the fact that he did not paint in oil until the age of 25.<ref name="eb1911"/>

[[File:Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), The Nightmare, 1781.jpg|thumb|''[[The Nightmare]]'' (1781), [[Detroit Institute of Arts]]]]
Fuseli painted more than 200 pictures, but he exhibited only a small number of them. His earliest painting represented ''Joseph Interpreting the Dreams of the Baker and Butler'', but the first to excite particular attention was ''[[The Nightmare]]'', exhibited in 1782, a painting of which he painted several versions.<ref name="eb1911"/> Themes seen in ''The Nightmare'' such as horror, dark magic and sexuality, were echoed in his 1796 painting, ''Night-Hag visiting the Lapland Witches''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Night-Hag Visiting Lapland Witches |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436423 |access-date=12 November 2019 |website=The Met}}</ref>

His sketches or designs numbered about 800; they have admirable qualities of invention and design and are frequently superior to his paintings. In his drawings, as in his paintings, his methods included deliberately exaggerating the proportions of the human body and throwing his figures into contorted attitudes. One technique involved setting down arbitrary points on a sheet, which then became the extreme points of the various limbs.<ref name="eb1911"/> Notable examples of these drawings were made in concert with George Richmond when the two artists were together in Rome.<ref>{{Citation|chapter=Fuseli, Henry|date=31 October 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00069309|title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists}}</ref> He rarely drew figures from life, basing his art on study of the antique and Michelangelo.

He produced no [[Landscape art|landscapes]]—"Damn Nature! she always puts me out" was his characteristic exclamation—and painted only two portraits.<ref name="eb1911" /> However, similar to contemporary landscape painters such as [[J. M. W. Turner]], he evoked qualities of terror and the sublime.

Many interesting anecdotes of Fuseli, and his relations to contemporary artists, are given in his ''Life'' by [[John Knowles (author)|John Knowles]] (1831).<ref name="eb1911"/> He influenced the art of [[Fortunato Duranti]].

==Writings==
[[File:Henry Fuseli by Edward Hodges Baily, 1824, National Portrait Gallery, London.jpg|thumb|Henry Fuseli (aged 83) by [[Edward Hodges Baily]], 1824, National Gallery, London]]He was a thorough master of French, Italian, English and German, and could write in all these languages with equal facility and vigour, although he preferred German as the vehicle of his thoughts. His principal written work was his series of twelve lectures delivered to the Royal Academy, begun in 1801.<ref name="eb1911"/>

==Influence==
His pupils included [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]], [[Benjamin Haydon]], [[William Etty]], and [[Edwin Landseer]].<ref>Keay, Carolyn (1974). ''Henry Fuseli''. London: Academy Editions. p. 7.</ref> [[William Blake]], who was 16 years his junior, recognized a debt to him, and for a time many English artists copied his mannerisms.<ref>Tomory, Peter A. (1972). ''The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli''. New York: Praeger. p 211.</ref><ref>Schiff, Gert (1975). ''Henry Fuseli 1741–1825: [Essay Catalogue Entries and Biographical Outline]''. London: Tate Gallery Publications. p. 14. {{ISBN|9780900874888}}.</ref>

==Death==
After a life of uninterrupted good health,<ref name="eb1911"/> he died on 17 April 1825, at the house of the Countess of Guildford on [[Putney|Putney Hill]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45294 |title=Putney &#124; Old and New London: Volume 6 (pp. 489–503) |publisher=British-history.ac.uk |date=22 June 2003 |access-date=14 May 2012}}</ref> aged 84, and was buried in the crypt of [[St Paul's Cathedral]].<ref>"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" [[William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London)|Sinclair, W.]] p. 465: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.</ref> He was comparatively wealthy at the time of his death.<ref name="eb1911"/>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="160" heights="160" perrow="7">
File:FuseliArtistMovedtoDespair.jpg|''[[The Artist's Despair Before the Grandeur of Ancient Ruins]]'', 1778–79
File:Zentralbibliothek Zürich - Portät von Anna Magdalena Schweizer geb Hess im Alter von 27 Jahren - 000003019.jpg|Anna Magdalena Schweizer, 1779
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 012.jpg|''The artist in conversation with [[Johann Jakob Bodmer]]'', 1778–1781
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 064.jpg|''The death of [[Achilles]]'', 1780
File:The two murderers of the Duke of Clarence.jpg|''The two murderers of the Duke of Clarence'', 1780–1782
File:Henry Fuseli - Titania and Bottom - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Titania and Bottom]]'', {{circa|1790}}
File:HEINRICH FÜSSLI - Falstaff en la cesta (Kunsthaus, Zúrich, 1792).jpg|''[[Falstaff]] in the laundry basket'', 1792
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 028.jpg|''The Creation of Eve'' from Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', 1793
File:Macbeth consulting the Vision of the Armed Head.jpg|''[[Macbeth]] consulting the Vision of the Armed Head'', 1793
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 032.jpg|''The daughters of [[Pandareus]]'', {{circa|1795}}
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 054.jpg|''[[Odysseus]] in front of [[Scylla and Charybdis]]'', 1794–1796
File:Lapland witches.jpg|''The [[Night-Hag]] visiting the Lapland Witches'', 1796
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 059.jpg|''Horseman attacked by a giant snake'', {{c.|1800}}
File:Ariel (Fuseli, c.1800-1810).jpg|''Ariel'', {{c.|1800–1810}}
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 047.jpg|''[[Kriemhild]] and [[Gunther]]'', 1807
File:Romeo stabs Paris at the bier of Juliet.jpg|''Romeo stabs Paris at the bier of Juliet'', {{c.|1809}}
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli - Lady Macbeth with the Daggers - WGA8338.jpg|''[[Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers]]'', 1810–1812
File:Puck (Fuseli, 1810-1820).jpg|''Puck, or Robin Goodfellow'', {{c.|1810–1820}}
File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 038.jpg|''Fairy Mab'', 1815–1820
File:Fuseli – Britomart.jpg|''[[Britomart Delivering Amoretta from the Enchantment of Busirane (Fuseli)|Britomart Delivering Amoretta from the Enchantment of Busirane]]'', 1824
</gallery>

==Films==
*[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/612019247 ''Passion and Obsession: Henry Fuseli, 1741–1825: painter and writer''] by [[:de:Gaudenz Meili|Gaudenz Meili]] and David H. Weinglass, Zurich 1997

==Books==
*[https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/creator-of-nightmares ''Creator of Nightmares: Henry Fuseli's Art and Life''] by Christopher Baker, [[Reaktion Books]], 2024

==See also==
*[[Johann Caspar Füssli|Füssli, Johann Caspar]] (1706–1782), Swiss [[portrait painter]] (father of Henry Fuseli)
*[[Johann Kaspar Füssli|Füssli, Johann Kaspar]] (1743–1786), Swiss [[entomologist]] (brother of Henry Fuseli)

==References and sources==
===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
*{{SIKART|4022806|Johann Heinrich Füssli}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Fuseli, Henry|volume= 11 |last= Rossetti |first= William Michael |author-link= William Michael Rossetti | page= 368 }}

==Further reading==
* Calè, Luisa. ''Fuseli's Milton Gallery: 'Turning readers into spectators'''. Oxford: [[Clarendon Press]], 2006.
* Hammelmann, Hans (1957). "Eighteenth-Century English Illustrators: Henry Fuseli, R.A.," ''The Book Collector'' 6 No.4 (winter): 350–363.
* Lentzsch, Franziska, et al. ''Fuseli: The Wild Swiss''. Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2005.
* Myrone, Martin. ''Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination''. London: [[Tate Publishing Ltd|Tate Publishing]], 2006.
* [[Andrei Pop]]. ''Antiquity, Theatre, and the Painting of Henry Fuseli''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 2015.
* Powell, Nicolas. ''Fuseli: The Nightmare''. London: Allen Lane, 1973.
* Pressly, Nancy L. ''The Fuseli Circle in Rome: Early Romantic Art of the 1770s''. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 1979.
* Weinglass, David H. ''Henry Fuseli and the Engraver's Art''. Boston: World Wide Books, 1982.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 = [http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/fuseli-titania-and-bottom.html Fuseli's Titania and Bottom], [[Smarthistory]] }}
*{{Gutenberg author | id=40282| name=Henry Fuseli}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Fuseli}}
*{{OL author|249427A}}
* [http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=6046 Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections]
*[https://archive.org/details/lecturesonpainti02fuse Fuseli's Lecture on Painting 1801]
*{{Books and Writers |id=fuseli |name=Henry Fuseli}}
*{{Art UK bio}}

{{Henry Fuseli}}
{{Romanticism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuseli, Henry}}
[[Category:1741 births]]
[[Category:1825 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century British painters]]
[[Category:British male painters]]
[[Category:19th-century British painters]]
[[Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral]]
[[Category:Keepers of the Royal Academy]]
[[Category:British portrait painters]]
[[Category:Swiss portrait painters]]
[[Category:Royal Academicians]]
[[Category:Artists from Zurich]]
[[Category:18th-century Swiss painters]]
[[Category:18th-century Swiss male artists]]
[[Category:Swiss male painters]]
[[Category:19th-century Swiss painters]]
[[Category:19th-century British male artists]]
[[Category:19th-century Swiss male artists]]
[[Category:Füssli family|Henry]]
[[Category:Swiss horror artists]]