The Spirit of Knowledge

Prints and Drawings

1798

Henry Fuseli
Swiss, active in England, 1741-1825

One of the most original and probing artists of the late 18th century, Fuseli worked principally in London but went to Rome for eight years beginning in 1770. The influence of Michelangelo’s prophets and sibyls is tangible in this allegorical figure, probably drawn in London a decade after he left Rome; at this time Fuseli had recently met William Blake, who treated a similar subject in his Book of Job.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Henry Fuseli
Title: The Spirit of Knowledge
Place: England (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1798
Medium: Black chalk and brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: 18.2 × 22.3 cm (7 3/16 × 8 13/16 in.)
Credit Line: Given in honor of Dorothy Braude Edinburg by Lowell Libson and the Directors of Spink-Leger
Reference Number: 1998.491
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London, Spink-Leger Pictures, “Master Drawings,” 1998, cat. 23.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawn to Form: Modern Drawings from the Dorothy Braude Edinburg Collection,” June 11-September 7, 1999, cat. 16.
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection”, March 15 - June 15, 2014.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Shockingly Mad: Henry Fuseli and the Art of Drawing”, November 16, 2017 - April 1, 2018.

Private collection, England, by 1930 [a letter from Lowell Libson of Spink-Leger Pictures dated Sept. 15, 1998 in curatorial file]. Trevor Roberts, England, to 1948 [Libson letter]; Ian Phillips, England, from 1948-1998 [London 1998 exh. cat.]; Leger Galleries, London; given to the Art Institute, 1998.

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