Fuseli

Fuseli, or Fussli, Henry, the son of an artist of note, was born at Zurich in 1741, and brought up for the Church. He took orders, but, having joined with his gifted schoolfellow, Lavater, in exposing a magistrate, had to seek voluntary exile. He reached England in 1763, made the acquaintance of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and by his advice devoted himself to art. In 1770 he went to Italy, where he spent eight years, and Italianised his name. On his return to England he found a patron in Boydell, the organiser of the Shakespeare gallery, brought out a translation of Lavater's Physiognomy, assisted Cowper with his Homer, and exhibited a series of paintings illustrative of Milton's poems. In 1790 he was elected R.A., and in 1799 was appointed Professor in Painting in the Academy, to which office he afterwards added the keepership. His lectures were published after his death, but they are not of much value, for his slap-dash method could hardly be inculcated by words. He had considerable ingenuity and power, being able to inspire his figures with a suggestion of movement; but he cared little for nature, and derived his ideas chiefly from a morbid imagination. So it came to be a legend that he supped on underdone pork chops in order to court hideous dreams. Of his 200 pictures the most famous, undoubtedly, is The Nightmare (1781). His keen sense of humour is shown in his illustrations of the Midsummer Night's Dream. He died at Putney, in 1825.