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See also:
Fuseli painted a number of pieces for this See also:patron, and about this time published an English edition of Lavater's See also:work on See also:physiognomy
.
He like-See also:wise gave See also:Cowper some valuable assistance in preparing the See also:translation of See also:Homer
.
In 1788 Fuseli married See also:Miss See also:Sophia Rawlins (who it appears was originally one of his See also:models, and who proved an affectionate wife), and he soon after became an See also:associate of the Royal See also:Academy
.
Two years later he was promoted to the grade of Academician
.
In 1798 he exhibited a See also:series of paintings from subjects furnished by the See also:works of See also:Milton, with a view to forming a Milton gallery corresponding to Boydell's Shakespeare gallery
.
The number of the Milton paintings was See also:forty-seven, many of them very large; they were executed at intervals within nine years
.
This See also:exhibition, which closed in 1800, proved a failure as regards profit
.
In 1799 also he was appointed See also:professor of See also:painting to the Academy
.
Four years afterwards he was chosen keeper, and resigned his professorship; but he resumed it in 181o, and continued to holdboth offices till his See also:death
.
In 18o5 he brought out an edition of Pilkington's Lives of the Painters, which, however, did not add much to his reputation
.
See also:Canova, when on his visit to England, was much taken with Fuseli's works, and on returning to See also:Rome in 1817 caused him to be elected a member of the first class in the Academy of St See also:Luke
.
Fuseli, after a See also:life of uninterrupted See also:good See also:health, died at Putney See also: He was comparatively See also:rich at his death, though his professional gains had always appeared to be meagre . As a painter, Fuseli had a daring invention, was See also:original, fertile in resource, and ever aspiring after the highest forms of excellence . His mind was capable of grasping and realizing the loftiest conceptions, which, however, he often spoiled on the See also:canvas by exaggerating the due proportions of the parts, and throwing his figures into attitudes of fantastic and over-strained contortion . He delighted to select from the region of the super-natural, and pitched everything upon an ideal See also:scale, believing a certain amount of exaggeration necessary in the higher branches of See also:historical painting . " See also:Damn Nature! she always puts me out," was his characteristic exclamation . In this theory he was confirmed by the study of See also:Michelangelo's works and the See also:marble statues of the See also:Monte See also:Cavallo, which, when at Rome, he used often to contemplate in the evening, relieved against a murky See also:sky or illuminated by See also:lightning . But this See also:idea was by him carried out to an excess, not only in the forms, but also in the attitudes of his figures; and the violent and intemperate See also:action which he often displays destroys the See also:grand effect which many of his pieces would otherwise produce . A striking See also:illustration of this occurs in his famous picture of " See also:Hamlet breaking from his Attendants to follow the See also:Ghost": Hamlet, it has been said, looks as though he would burst his clothes with convulsive cramps in all his muscles . This intemperance is the grand defect of nearly all Fuseli's compositions . On the other See also:hand, his paintings are never either languid or See also:cold . His figures are full of life and earnestness, and seem to have an See also:object in view which they follow with rigid intensity . Like See also:Rubens he excelled in the art of setting his figures in See also:motion .
Though the lofty and terrible was his proper See also:sphere, Fuseli had a See also:fine See also:perception of the ludicrous
.
The See also:grotesque See also:humour of his See also:fairy scenes, especially those taken from A Midsummer-See also:Night's See also:Dream, is in its way not less remarkable than the poetic See also:power of his more ambitious works
.
As a colourist Fuseli has but small claims to distinction
.
He scorned to set a See also:palette as most artists do; he merely dashed his tints recklessly over it
.
Not unfrequently he used his paints in the See also:form of a dry See also:powder, which he rubbed up with his See also:pencil with oil, or See also:turpentine, or See also:gold See also:size, regardless of the quantity, and depending for See also:accident on the See also:general effect
.
This recklessness may perhaps be explained by the fact that he did not paint in oil till he was twenty-five years of age
.
Despite these draw-backs he possessed the elements of a See also:great painter
.
Fuseli painted more than 200 pictures, but he exhibited only a minority of them
.
His earliest painting represented " See also:Joseph interpreting the Dreams of the See also:Baker and See also: He was a thorough See also:master of See also:French, Italian, English and German, and could write in all these See also:tongues with equal facility and vigour, though he preferred German as the vehicle of his thoughts . His writings contain passages of the best art-See also:criticism that English literature can show . The See also:principal work is his series of Lectures in the Royal Academy, twelve in number, commenced in 18or . Many interesting anecdotes of Fuseli, and his relations to See also:con-temporary artists, are given in his Life by John See also:Knowles, who also edited his works in 3 vols . 8vo, See also:London, 1831 . (W . M . |
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