Johann Heinrich FüssliSwiss, 1741–1825The Fire King
About the painting
Henry Fuseli [Johann Heinrich Füssli] (1741-1825), was born in Zurich and received rigorous art-historical training from his father Johann Caspar Füssli. He spent most of his life in London becoming an associate of the Royal Academy in 1788 and a Royal Academician in 1790. He specialised in history paintings on a grand scale, drawing his inspiration from the mythology, classical literature and notably Dante’s Divine Comedy. He was also a prolific writer and was elected the Academy’s Professor of Painting in a post he held until 1805; he was made Keeper in 1804 and re-elected Professor in 1810, and the statutes were changed to enable him to retain the Keepership as well.
Read on
The subject matter was borrowed from Walter Scott’s ballad, The Fire King, published in G.M. Lewis’ Tales of Wonder in 1801. It is set at the time of the Crusades, and depicts the Fire King about to give a magical sword to the hero, Count Albert. This scene of emotional intensity and the emphasis on the hero’s terror as the Fire King appears in a glow of volcanic irruptions is a fine example of Fuseli’s art. His wide-ranging imagination and favourite subject matters draw upon the supernatural, fairy mythology and demonic superstition.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 158-1885
Meanwhile, in the life of Johann Heinrich Füssli
The whole life1778–1825 · Workplace
Great Britain
1788–1803 · Residence
37 Foley Street
1799
The “Milton Gallery”: 47 paintings
Fuseli exhibited 47 paintings on subjects from Milton, many of them very large and completed at intervals over nine years, hoping to form a Milton gallery comparable to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. The exhibition proved a commercial failure and closed in 1800.
1799
Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy
In 1799 Fuseli was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy. His pupils included Theodor von Holst, David Wilkie, Benjamin Haydon, William Etty and Edwin Landseer.
1801
Begins his lectures on painting at the Academy
Fuseli's principal written work was a series of twelve lectures delivered at the Royal Academy, begun in 1801. He wrote French, Italian, English and German with equal facility, though he preferred German as the vehicle of his thoughts.
1804
Keeper of the Royal Academy
From 1804 to 1825 Fuseli served as Keeper of the Academy's picture gallery (by other accounts he was chosen Keeper four years after becoming professor, i.e. in 1803, and resigned his professorship then). In 1810 he resumed teaching and held both offices until his death.
