1. Henry Fuseli, Sophia Fuseli sleeping, in a broad-brimmed hat, c. 1795, Pen and brown ink, brush and watercolour and opaque watercolour, 227 × 186 mm Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Purchased 1965, Image courtesy of Auck- land Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Füssli, the draftsman
Until the end of May 2023, the Kunsthaus Zurich present in collaboration with The Courtauld in London an exhibition dedicated to the swiss born artist Henry Füssli. After an exhibition in Basel in 2018 and exhibitions all around Europe, one piece of the puzzle was missing, his drawings.
The two curators of the two venues have decided to only focus on this aspect of his work: Mode - Fetisch and Fantasie. In those watercolours, some of them quite big in size, the artist showcase bold and intriguing female figures, most of the time from the back or the side, with their immaculate hairs and their flamboyant and seductive outfits.
Füssli, the life of an artist
Henry Fuseli or Johann Heinrich Füssli (7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was an important Swiss painter who spent much of his life in Britain. When he was born in Zürich, he was the second of 18 children of the family, and he will be the only one to pursue art as a carrier, like his father which was a popular painter of portraits and landscapes and the author of "Lives of the Helvetic Painters".
His father tried to put Henri Füssli for the , him to the of Zurich, where an excellent classical education. During his years in the catholic school, he meets Johann Kaspar Lavater a Swiss poet, writer and philosopher. Due to him Füssli will be forced to leave the country as a result of having helped Lavater to expose an unjust magistrate, whose powerful family sought revenge.
He decided to move to Germany, and then, in 1765, visited England, where he supported himself for some time by miscellaneous writing. At the time Füssli was not known for his paintings, but for his writing..
A few years later, as he was starting his career as an artist, he had the privileged to sold one of his first work to Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom he showed his drawings. Following this purchase, Sir Joshua Reynolds became a great supporter for his art, and he influenced him to go to Italy for eight years to discover the Renaissance.
While returning from Italy, he returned to London and stopped in Zürich on the way home. In 9 years, the artist started to have a reputation in Britain. He had his first commission from Alderman Boydell, who was then setting up his Shakespeare Gallery. The artist created a number of pieces for Boydell and also published an English edition of Lavater's work on physiognomies and prepared a translation of Homer, thus Füssli oeuvre was deeply linked to writing and old myths.
In 1788, he married Sophia Rawlins (originally one of his models), and he soon after became an associate of the Royal Academy. A decade later, he exhibited a series of paintings from subjects inspired by the works of John Milton. The exhibition proved a commercial failure and closed in 1800.
Decades later, Antonio Canova, one of the most important sculptors of Venice visited England. During his trip he became fascinated with Füssli's works, and on returning to Rome in 1817 caused him to be elected a member of the first class in the Academy of St Luke.
His bold and seductive works
2. Henry Fuseli, The Debutante, 1807 Pen and brown and black ink, brush and watercolour and opaque water- colour, over graphite, 370 × 240 mm Tate, London, presented by Lady Holroyd in accordance with the wishes of the late Sir Charles Holroyd 1919, photo © Tate
In his painting, Füssli will prefer to present supernatural scenes, where the model or numerous models are put into a context, a room or even a scene with a bit of exaggeration necessary to create an historical painting.Beside his inspiration of historical paintings, the artist was also a master of light and shadow. Rather than setting out his palette methodically, he preferred to use colours quite randomly, while experiment with using dry pigment, turpentine, or gold size, regardless of the quantity, which causes some artwork to fade during the years.
In his life he created more or less than 200 pictures, but he exhibited only a small number of them during his lifetime. His earliest painting represented "Joseph interpreting the Dreams of the Baker and Butler", but the first to excite particular attention was "The Nightmare", exhibited in 1782, a painting of which he painted several versions.
An unknown part of his oeuvre are his drawings, which equals to more or less 800 sheets, if you don't court the sketchbooks.
Thus, the exhibition of the Kunsthaus Zurich shed light (literally) on this unknown part of his work by creating an exhibition around the theme of Mode – Fetisch – Fantasie.
The exhibition
3. Henry Fuseli, Half-length figure of a courtesan with feathered head-dress, c. 1800–10, Graphite, pen and brown ink, brush and watercolour, 283 × 200 mm, Kunsthaus Zürich, Graphische Sammlung, The Gottfried Keller Foundation, Federal Office of Culture, Berne, 1934
In the exhibition in Zürich, which comprises of more of less then 60 works, coming from all around the world, the public can explore Füssli as a draughtsman, a creator of a fascinating universe that present women in a new way.
When you might expect to see a group of naked women in a picture, like most of the painting of the time, the women of Füssli are most of the time presented from the side or from the back. Thus, the artist is taking some liberty on the tradition of the female model by focusing on the shape and the form of the body rather than its nudity and its sexual attraction.
In his work, the women are defined by stiff bodices, waistbands, puffed sleeves and pointed shoes, and whose heads are crowned by coiffures of the most bizarre and complicated kind. They are self-confident, challenging to approach and bold, with their accessories, their size and their movement. When gathered together in groups, their activities may seem mysterious; in erotic scenes, meanwhile, the women appear to remain firmly in control.
The publication
With the exhibition, the museum has published an exhibition catalogue "Fuseli and the Modern Woman: Fashion, Fantasy, Fetishism". The catalogue is edited by David H. Solkin and Ketty Gottardo, with contributions by Jonas Beyer, Mechthild Fend, Ketty Gottardo and David H. Solkin.
The exhibition catalogue is available in English and in German for a price of CHF 39.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Kunsthaus Zürich
Date: 24.2.2023 – 21.5.2023
Curators: Jonas Beyer
Ticket: Available on the website of the Kunsthaus Zürich OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Kunsthaus Zürich
Kunsthaus Zürich
Heimplatz
CH-8001 Zürich
Phone: +41 44 253 84 84
Mail: info@kunsthaus.ch