Milton Dictating to His Daughter
1794
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
121.2 × 118.7 cm (47 3/4 × 46 3/4 in.); Framed: 142.9 × 130.5 cm (56 1/4 × 51 3/8 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
44739
Art Historical Context
Henry Fuseli’s *Milton Dictating to His Daughter* (1794) captures a quiet yet powerful moment of literary creation. The Swiss-born artist, celebrated for his dramatic Romantic style fascination with literature, portrays the blind poet John Milton composing his epic *Paradise Lost*. Seated in shadow, Milton leans toward his daughter, whose attentive posture suggests both intimacy and intellectual partnership. The scene reflects the late-eighteenth-century fascination with genius, inspiration, and the heroic struggles of great writers. Painted in rich oil on canvas, Fuseli employs strong contra...
About the Artist
Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), born Johann Heinrich Füssli in Zürich, was a Swiss-British painter whose visionary works exploring dreams, nightmares, and psychological terror made him one of the most original figures of the Romantic movement. His art bridged Neoclassical discipline with Romantic emotionalism, creating images of supernatural intensity that would influence artists from William Blake to t...