Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseliwas a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain. Many of his works, such as The Nightmare, deal with supernatural subject-matter. He painted works for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, and created his own "Milton Gallery". He held the posts of Professor of Painting and Keeper at the Royal Academy. His style had a considerable influence on many younger British artists, including William Blake...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth7 February 1741
real sacrifice fancy
When we idealize the real, we sacrifice to artistic fancy.
beautiful ideas fancy
Our ideas are the offspring of our senses; we are not more able to create the form of a being we have not seen, without retrospect to one we know, than we are able to create a new sense. He whose fancy has conceived an idea of the most beautiful form must have composed it from actual existence.
art egypt rome
Ancient art was the tyrant of Egypt, the mistress of Greece and the servant of Rome.
color lines principles
Tintoretto attempted to fill the line of Michelangelo with color, without tracing its principle.
character criticism envelopes
Raffael's drapery is the assistant of character, in Michelangelo it envelopes grandeur; it is in Reubens the ponderous robe of pomp.
religious art military
Art among a religious race produces reliques [sic]; among a military one, trophies; among a commercial one, articles of trade.
art men like-love
Art, like love, excludes all competition and absorbs the man.
perfection mediocrity pursuit
Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to mediocrity.
landscape invention painter
Selection is the invention of the landscape painter.
art practice life-is
Life is rapid, art is slow, occasion coy, practice fallacious, and judgment partial.
excellence immortality labor
The price of excellence is labor, and time that of immortality.
heaven genius earth
Heaven and earth, advantages and obstacles, conspire to educate genius.
mean simplicity greek
The superiority of the Greeks seems not so much the result of climate and society, as of the simplicity of their end and the uniformity of their means.
envy vampire emulation
Emulation embalms the dead; envy, the vampire, blasts the living.