Thetis Mourning the Body of Achilles
1780
Medium
Brush and brown and brownish-red wash, over graphite, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
41 × 55.7 cm (16 3/16 × 21 15/16 in.)
Classification
ink or chalk wash
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
84471
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Many of the formulae of Fuseli’s idiosyncratic style are present in this powerful drawing: a stage-like setting, extreme contrasts of light and dark, exaggerated gestures, and dramatic foreshortening. All of these are combined in a drama of mythical intensity rendered in boldly applied washes. The dead Achilles fills the foreground, sprawled upon his shield. His mother, the goddess Thetis, emerges from a rocky outcropping at right, her arms spread in grief. In the distance, the airborne hero’s ...
About the Artist
Henry Fuseli · 1741–1825
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...