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See also: English painter and writer on See also: art, of See also: German-Swiss See also: family, was See also: born at Zurich in See also: Switzerland on the 7th of See also: February 1741; he himself asserted in 1745, but this appears to have been a See also: mere whim
.
He was the second See also: child in a family of eighteen
.
His See also: father was See also: John Caspar Fussli, of some note as a painter of portraits and landscapes, and author of Lives of the Helvetic Painters
.
This
See also: parent destined his son for the See also: church, and with this view sent him to the
See also: Caroline See also: college of his native See also: town, where he received an excellent classical See also: education
.
One of his schoolmates there was See also: Lavater, with whom he formed an intimate friendship
.
After taking orders in 1761 See also: Fuseli was obliged to leave his country for a while in consequence of having aided Lavater to expose an unjust magistrate, whose family was still powerful enough to make its vengeance felt
.
He first travelled through See also: Germany, and then, in 1765, visited See also: England, where he supported himself for some See also: time by See also: miscellaneous writing; there was a sort of project of promoting through his means a See also: regular See also: literary communication between England and Germany
.
He became in course of time acquainted with See also: Sir See also: Joshua See also: Reynolds, to whom he showed his drawings
.
By Sir Joshua's advice he then devoted himself wholly to art
.
In 1770 he made an art-pilgrimage to See also: Italy, where he remained till 1778, changing his name from Fussli to Fuseli, as more See also: Italian-sounding
.
Early in 1779 he returned to England, taking Zurich on his way
.
He found a commission awaiting him from Alderman See also: Boydell, who was then organizing his celebrated See also: Shakespeare gallery
.
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-wise gave 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 associate of the Royal See also: Academy
.
Two years later he was promoted to the grade of Academician
.
In 1798 he exhibited a 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 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: Hill on the 16th of
See also: April 1825, at the advanced age of eighty-four, and was buried in the crypt of St See also: Paul's See also: cathedral
.
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 Michelangelo's works and the 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 sky or illuminated by See also: lightning
.
But this 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 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 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 motion
.
Though the lofty and terrible was his proper sphere, Fuseli had aSee also: fine perception of the ludicrous
.
The See also: grotesque See also: humour of his fairy scenes, especially those taken from A Midsummer-See also: Night's Dream, is in its way not less remarkable than the poetic power of his more ambitious works
.
As a colourist Fuseli has but small claims to distinction
.
He scorned to set a 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 powder, which he rubbed up with his pencil with oil, or turpentine, or gold See also: size, regardless of the quantity, and depending for accident on the 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: Butler"; the first to excite particular
See also: attention was the " Nightmare," exhibited in 1782
.
He produced only two portraits
.
His sketches or designs numbered about Boo; they have admirable qualities of invention and design, and are frequently See also: superior to his paintings
.
His general See also: powers of mind were large
.
He was a thorough master of French, Italian, English and German, and could write in all these 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 Knowles, who also edited his works in 3 vols
.
8vo, See also: London, 1831
.
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