John Henry Fuseli 18th Century

Looking through the works of art done by John Henry Fuseli you can see that his work is very dark and can seem somewhat morbid. Fuseli would also paint tragic or violent situations from European literature mostly from Shakespeare and Milton. The painting “The Shepherd’s Dream” is an image from Milton’s poem Paradise Lost.

In the painting you see a man at the bottom, which is the shepherd, above him you see four figures that are meant to be fairy elves in a dream he is seeing. It is said that there were a few more copies of this painting and Fuseli left out certain things on purpose. Each of the painting and drawing has a few differences. One main difference is the fairy that is flying in the middle is fully clothed but in the Princeton sheet the fairy is nude. The fairy that is swooping down to touch the shepherd is also nude. On the drawing Albertina they are clothed with flowing cloth flowing around them. And in the painting they are clothed as well. There are other slight changes that were made. Such as a smile on a girls face to the wand of a fairy taken out. These are slight changes that seem to make the painting a better fit for Fuseli’s style. The smiling adolescent girl also has another change that was made to her. In the Albertina drawing the girl is pointing towards the shepherd but in the painting she is point away from him and up towards the fairies instead. I think this change was made to put more importance on the dream of the shepherd rather then just him sleeping.

As you can see in the Albertina drawing (on the right) you can see so much more going on in the scene than you do in the painting. The painting is darker and shows off more of Fuseli’s style of that tragic look. In Fuseli’s work you can see a dark figure that looks real evil like, almost like a demon. You can see a couple of these figures in the Albertina drawing but not in the painting. According to Mandle “Fuseli’s paintings lack the spontaneity and weird energy.” I agree with him that there is more energy in his Albertina drawing. I personally like the finished painting better than the Albertina drawing. I think that the finished painting looks more like his style of artwork. I think his style is very unique he has a high tendency to use real dark colors to make his work look more tragic and morbid. I also think that the Albertina drawing is really busy for his style of work, it reminds me of mannerism type of art. I liked that he turns more towards the fantasy world. I think this is brought out because he follows the works of Shakespeare and Milton. Both have unnatural stories and poems.

Fuseli can really see and imagine what fairies, demons, and just weird dreams people may have. Seeing the differences between the painting and the drawing I can see the differences and changes that were made. I think that any more changes to the drawing could lead to a different viewpoint of the piece. I like the painting and the changes that were made and other objects that were hidden. It really adds to his style of artwork and it also applies to the views of Shakespeare and Milton’s works.

           

Works Cited

Lindsay, Suzanne G. The Art Bulletin. http://www.jstor.org/‌stable/‌3050980. College Art Association, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/‌stable/‌3050980>.

Mandle, Roger. Master Drawings. N.p.: Master Drawing Association, 1973. JSTOR. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/‌stable/‌1553211>.