When the artist Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli) died in 1825, he left behind in London’s Somerset House an intriguing set of drawings. Though he had a somewhat respectable role in the art establishment and received the honour of burial in St Paul’s Cathedral, these drawings represent a more private side to the artist’s practice. In some cases, the images were so ‘indelicate’ that Fuseli’s wife and model Sophia (née Rawlins) felt it necessary to destroy them.
Born in Zürich in 1741, Fuseli’s entry into the Royal Academy of Arts (becoming Professor of Painting in 1788, full Academician in 1790, and Keeper in 1805) and into the institution of marriage (also in 1788) came rather late in his career. His father was an artist and his brother was also destined to follow in the family profession, but young Johann Heinrich was sent to study theology in order to become a priest. Yet he drew as a child, alone and by candlelight. This personal practice is something the deft draughtsman kept up later in life, carrying with it the notion that drawing allowed for experimentation, fantasy, and going against the grain.
IMAGE: Lytham St Annes Art Collection of Fylde Council © Heritage Images/Fine Art Images/akg-images
Though Sophia Fuseli burned some of the artist’s drawings, more than 150 of Fuseli’s drawings of women are known to survive. Some have now been brought together at the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House, the former home of the RA where Fuseli resided as Keeper, for Fuseli and the Modern Woman: fashion, fantasy, fetishism. Organised with the Kunsthaus Zürich, where it will open in February (with a slightly different selection of works, curated by Jonas Beyer), this is the first exhibition devoted to the artist’s drawings of women.
The Fifth Shanghai Archaeology Forum