Publisher's Synopsis
Throughout his lifetime the name Henry Fuseli (1741?1825) was constantly invoked as the epitome of untramelled genius and originality. In our own day he is recognised not only as a seminal figure in the rise of Romanticism but as a great artist and master illustrator in his own right. The current interest in the work of Fuseli is rivalled only by the phenomenal popularity of William Blake, a near contemporary. - - Fuseli is perhaps best known as the painter of the hobgoblin world of the nightmare. Indeed his paintings were his most grandiose endeavours. Fuseli consistently sought to render in benefiting heroic style the painterly subjects and high moral themes that he found embodied in literature, history and legend. His remarkable erudication and literary versatility stood him in good stead in this pursuit. - - Yet it was in the modest compass of the reproductive print, capable of being multiplied at will, that his fame was wafted abroad. It says much for Fuseli's grip on the imagination that more than 300 subjects - about one eighth of his entire production - were engraved after him. All but a handful of these designs were transferred to copper by professional engravers. The designs from which the engraver worked ran the gauntlet from highly finished oil paintings to rudimentary jottings, requiring considerable working up by the engraver in consultation with the artist. Many of these engravings were used as book illustrations in the editions of literary classics. - - This comprehensive catalogue of the prints and engraved illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli explores the nature and extent of Fuseli's role as history painter cum illustrator. It examines how engraved versions of his and other artists' paintings stimulated public interest in the arts and literature, thereby becoming an important means of cultural transmission to the middle class.
