Fuseli, John Henry (1741-1825) - 1792 Falstaff in the Laundry Basket ( Kunsthaus, Zurich)
Oil on canvas; 137 × 170 cm.
He was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the second of eighteen children. His father was Johann Caspar Füssli, a painter of portraits and landscapes. He intended Henry for the church, and sent him to the Caroline college of Zurich, where he received an excellent classical education. In 1765 he visited England, where he supported himself by miscellaneous writing. Eventually, he became acquainted with Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom he showed his drawings. Following Sir Joshua's advice he devoted himself wholly to art. In 1770 he made an art-pilgrimage to Italy, where he remained till 1778.
In Rome he copied Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes, drawn to the expressive style and the sometimes disturbing imagery. He also painted tragic or violent situations from literature, particularly Shakespeare and Milton, populated by stylized figures with exaggerated movements. Critical successes brought international acclaim, despite his unusually unrestrained, agitated approach. In 1799 Fuseli was named a Royal Academy professor, and he became curator there in 1804. One of his former pupils remembered that he "used to dab his beastly brush into the oil, and sweeping round the palette in the dark, take up a great lump of white, red, or blue, as it might be and plaster it over a shoulder or face. . . . I found him the most grotesque mixture of literature, art, skepticism, indelicacy, profanity, and kindness".
Fuseli, John Henry (1741-1825) - 1792 Falstaff in the Laundry Basket ( Kunsthaus, Zurich)
Oil on canvas; 137 × 170 cm.
He was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the second of eighteen children. His father was Johann Caspar Füssli, a painter of portraits and landscapes. He intended Henry for the church, and sent him to the Caroline college of Zurich, where he received an excellent classical education. In 1765 he visited England, where he supported himself by miscellaneous writing. Eventually, he became acquainted with Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom he showed his drawings. Following Sir Joshua's advice he devoted himself wholly to art. In 1770 he made an art-pilgrimage to Italy, where he remained till 1778.
In Rome he copied Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes, drawn to the expressive style and the sometimes disturbing imagery. He also painted tragic or violent situations from literature, particularly Shakespeare and Milton, populated by stylized figures with exaggerated movements. Critical successes brought international acclaim, despite his unusually unrestrained, agitated approach. In 1799 Fuseli was named a Royal Academy professor, and he became curator there in 1804. One of his former pupils remembered that he "used to dab his beastly brush into the oil, and sweeping round the palette in the dark, take up a great lump of white, red, or blue, as it might be and plaster it over a shoulder or face. . . . I found him the most grotesque mixture of literature, art, skepticism, indelicacy, profanity, and kindness".