Fuseli

Fuseli, HENRY, or more properly Johann Heinrich Füssli, a portrait-painter and art-critic, was born at Zurich, 7th February 1742. In the course of a visit to England he became acquainted in 1767 with Sir Joshua Reynolds, who encouraged him to devote himself to painting. Accordingly he proceeded to Italy in 1770, where he remained for eight years, studying in particular the works of Michael Angelo, and enjoying the society of Winckelmann and Mengs. After his return to England he was elected in 1790 a member of the Royal Academy, where, nine years later, he became professor of Painting. He died at Putney, near London, 16th April 1825. His paintings, some 200 in number, include 'The Nightmare' (1781), and two series to illustrate Shakespeare's and Milton's works respectively. As a painter Fuseli was bold in conception, his imagination reaching up to the loftiest levels of ideal invention; his figures were full of life and energy; and his pictures were often wrought under the poetic inspiration of the mystery of the supernatural. They are, however, too frequently deficient in careful workmanship, the execution having been hurried and rash. His Lectures on Painters (1820) contain some of the best art-criticism in the English language. His literary works, with a narrative of his life, were published by Knowles (3 vols. Lond. 1831).