Artwork Information
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.
- Artist
- Henry Fuseli
- Title
- Bust Portrait of Mrs Fuseli
- 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
More by Henry Fuseli (51)
Shakespeare: Tempest, Act I, Scene II
1797
Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act I, Scene III
1798
Shakespeare: Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act II, Scene IV
1795
Shakespeare: Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act IV, Scene I, Oberon, Queen of the Fairies, Puck, Bottom and Fairies attending
1803
Explore Connections (5)
Women
1863 Artworks
Wives
48 Artworks
Portraits
1483 Artworks
Busts
196 Artworks
Bonnets (hats)
65 Artworks