Triumph of Death: Three Skeletons Invading a Bacchanal Orchestrated by a Magician or an Evil Demon

1770·Graphite, with brush and gray wash, on cream laid paper (left sheet); graphite, pen and black ink, and brush and reddish-gray wash, on ivory laid paper (right sheet), joined and laid down on ivory Japanese paper, edge mounted on cream card·Both sides: 35.7 × 57.2 cm (14 1/16 × 22 9/16 in.); Secondary support: 42 × 36.9 cm (16 9/16 × 14 9/16 in.)

<p>Fuseli often dwelled on the macabre and the sensational, as in this drawing, and occasionally allowed his unconscious mind to dictate his subject matter. “For if these images so pursue us when our minds are in a kind of waking dream,” he wrote, “why should we not use this vice of the mind?”<br>Fuseli’s art played a role in his age’s taste for the Gothic. It was an era that saw the emergence of distinctly modern forms of cultural consumption: romances, sentimental novels and, most important, Gothic novels and plays focusing on themes of terror and the supernatural. As Fuseli’s student Benjamin Haydon wrote, “Amongst all classes [Fuseli] was considered a painter of horrors.”</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1770
Medium: Graphite, with brush and gray wash, on cream laid paper (left sheet); graphite, pen and black ink, and brush and reddish-gray wash, on ivory laid paper (right sheet), joined and laid down on ivory Japanese paper, edge mounted on cream card
Dimensions: Both sides: 35.7 × 57.2 cm (14 1/16 × 22 9/16 in.); Secondary support: 42 × 36.9 cm (16 9/16 × 14 9/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Henry Fuseli

Artist

Henry Fuseli

Painting

Henry Fuseli was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art who spent much of his career in Britain.

Zurich, Switzerland

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Aided by Eeriboia, Hermes Carries Off the Exhausted Ares from the Sleeping Sons of Aloeus (recto); Sketch of One of the Sleeping Sons of Aloeus (verso)

1819 · Graphite and brush and black wash, with touches of charcoal (recto), and graphite (verso), on cream wove paper

WW-1819-100678