Henry Fuseli
Swiss, active in England, 1741-1825
The Discovery (recto), Two Sketches of Standing Male Figures (verso)
INV-1134
Henry Fuseli
Swiss, active in England, 1741-18251767/69
The Discovery (recto), Two Sketches of Standing Male Figures (verso)
Henry Fuseli Swiss, active in England, 1741-1825 →pen and ink drawingsdrawings (visual works)
Date
1767/69
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over graphite with traces of opaque brown paint (recto), graphite (verso), on cream laid paper, tipped onto ivory laid paper
Dimensions
52.9 × 65.8 cm (20 7/8 × 25 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Frank B. Hubachek
This powerful drawing—a bravura exercise in virtuoso line and tonal washes—illustrates a story from Swiss theologian Ludwig Lavater’s book De Spectris (“On Ghosts”), published in 1569. It describes a priest who, dressed in a sheet, haunts his wealthy niece who is living in his house, in an attempt to rape her and cheat her of her fortune. Terrified, the niece enlists the aid of a friend who exposes the repentant priest.
The curious badminton match visible in the background—not in the story, but added by Fuseli as a critical commentary—is a reference to a proverb composed in Latin by the Dutch poet Jacob Cats (1577–1660): Amor ut pila vices exiget, “Love, like a ball, demands reciprocation.”
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