ArtworkStatus unknown
Two Heads of Damned Souls from Dante's "Inferno" (front and back)
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oil paint (paint)29 × 40 Cm
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About the artwork
Artist supplied description.
Henry Fuseli created the expressive head studies on each side of this unprimed canvas using strategically placed highlights and deep shadows built up of thin washes. The artist probably painted these oil sketches while living in Italy between 1770 and 1778. Both images were engraved as illustrations for Johann Caspar Lavater’s influential book on physiognomy, a popular pseudoscience that assessed an individual’s character based on their outward appearance. According to that text, the heads were inspired by the damned souls in Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s epic Inferno.
Artwork metadata
Structured fields synced from connected systems.
| Medium | oil paint (paint) |
| Dimensions | 29 × 40 Cm |
| Tags | facessketchstudystudiesdeathfigures |
| Certificate | Certificate not provided |
Timeline
Chain of custody, exhibitions, and verification milestones synced from the provenance service.
Sat
22
Nov
exhibition
Art Institute of Chicago, Shockingly Mad: Henry Fuseli and the Art of Drawing, November 18-April 1, 2017.
Art Institute of Chicago, Shockingly Mad: Henry Fuseli and the Art of Drawing, November 18-April 1, 2017.
Sat
22
Nov
note
bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1943 [they were not individually accessioned when they arrived at the Art Institute, but the heads can be identified from Gurley’s index cards preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings]
bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1943 [they were not individually accessioned when they arrived at the Art Institute, but the heads can be identified from Gurley’s index cards preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings]
Sat
22
Nov
note
Frances S. Connelly, “Profound Play: The Image Tradition of the Comic Grotesque” in Comic Grotesque, Wit and Mockery in German Art, 1870–1940, exh. cat. Neue Galerie, New York, 2005, p. 205, fig. 11.
Frances S. Connelly, “Profound Play: The Image Tradition of the Comic Grotesque” in Comic Grotesque, Wit and Mockery in German Art, 1870–1940, exh. cat. Neue Galerie, New York, 2005, p. 205, fig. 11.
Sat
22
Nov
note
Sold Puttick and Simpson, London, October 23, 1914, no....
Sold Puttick and Simpson, London, October 23, 1914, no. 236, to William F. E. Gurley (died 1943), Chicago [part of a group of nineteen works by Fuseli acquired by Gurley as nos. 235 and 236 of this sale, described under the heading of “Original Drawings by H. Fuseli” as “Illustrations to Milton’s Poems.”]
Fri
22
Nov
note
Malcolm Warner in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1996, pp. 226-32, ill.
Malcolm Warner in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1996, pp. 226-32, ill.
Fri
22
Nov
exhibition
Art Institute of Chicago, New Light on Old Masters: French and British Paintings from 1700 to 1800, November 16, 1996–February 2, 1997, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, New Light on Old Masters: French and British Paintings from 1700 to 1800, November 16, 1996–February 2, 1997, no cat.
Tue
22
Nov
note
David H. Weinglass, Prints and Engraved Illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli: A Catalogue Raisonné, Aldershot, England, and Brookfield, Vt., 1994, pp. 41, 95, under nos. 50, 83.
David H. Weinglass, Prints and Engraved Illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli: A Catalogue Raisonné, Aldershot, England, and Brookfield, Vt., 1994, pp. 41, 95, under nos. 50, 83.
Sun
22
Nov
note
accessioned, 1992.
accessioned, 1992.
Fri
22
Nov
note
David H. Weinglass, “’Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?’ In der Emigration: Johann Heinrich Füssli,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 23–24, 1991, p. 67.
David H. Weinglass, “’Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?’ In der Emigration: Johann Heinrich Füssli,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 23–24, 1991, p. 67.
Thu
22
Nov
note
transferred from the Department of Prints and Drawings to the Department of European Painting, 1990
transferred from the Department of Prints and Drawings to the Department of European Painting, 1990
© Artist-Unknown. All rights reserved.