Fuseli and the Modern Woman

A catalog accompanying the first exhibition devoted to a fascinating group of drawings by one of eighteenth-century Europe's most idiosyncratic, original, and controversial artists. Best known for his notoriously provocative painting The Nightmare, Anglo-Swiss painter Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) cultivated a reputation for eccentricity, with vividly stylized images of supernatural creatures, muscle-bound heroes, and damsels in distress. While these convinced some viewers of the greatness of his genius, others dismissed him as a charlatan, or as completely mad. By bringing together more than fifty of his works, this volume offers unprecedented access to see one of the finest draftsmen of the Romantic period at his most innovative and exciting. Visitors to the show and readers of the lavishly illustrated catalog will further be invited to consider how Fuseli's drawings of women, as products of the turbulent aftermath of the American and French Revolutions, speak to concerns about gender and sexuality that have never been more relevant than they are today. The exhibition showcases drawings brought together from international collections, including the Kunsthaus Zu¨rich, the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, and other European and North American institutions.