Henry Fuseli
Bust Portrait of Mrs Fuseli
Artwork Detail
Fuseli had a passion for wildly exaggerating his wife Sophia’s complicated wigs, comparing her head and hairstyles to ‘the head of fair-faced Medusa’. According to some legends, Medusa was a beautiful woman who had her hair transformed into snakes by Athena. Because anyone who looked on her face was turned to stone, Medusa became a popular decoration on warriors’ shields.
- Title
- Bust Portrait of Mrs Fuseli
- Artist/creator
- Production date
- circa 1795
- Medium
- pen with black and blue wash, heightened with white (brush and wash worked up with gouache)
- Dimensions
- 174 x 144 mm
- Credit line
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1965
- Accession no
- 1965/48
- Copyright
- No known copyright restrictions
- Department
- International Art
- Display status
- Not on display
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