FUSELI, HENRY (1741-1825), Anglo-Swiss painter and author, was born at Zurich on Feb. 7, 1741, the son of John Caspar Fiissli, painter and lexicographer. At the Collegium Curolinum at Zurich he formed a fast friendship with Lavater, and on leaving college both the friends took orders. They were soon forced to leave Zurich on account of the stir raised by the publication of a pamphlet of theirs attacking one of the bailiwicks of Zurich for extortion. They travelled via Germany to England, where they arrived at the end of 1763, and where they were well received. Fuseli supported himself by writing, but was persuaded by Sir Joshua Reynolds to devote himself to art. He visited Rome in 177o, and there made many sketches for the Shakespeare illus trations, which afterwards made his fame. He was back in Lon don in I 779, and became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, where he was admitted A.R.A. in 1788 and R.A. in 179o. In the meantime he had accomplished his most important work, nine pictures on Shakespearean subjects, contributed to Alderman Boydell's Shakespeare gallery. A proposal was made to him in 1790 by Johnson, the publisher, to open a Milton gallery. This was opened in 1799 with 4o pictures, but was a failure from the artistic point of view. In that year Fuseli was appointed pro fessor of painting at the Royal Academy, and his first lecture was delivered in 18o1. He died on April 16, 1825.
See the Life by John Knowles, prefixed to his collected Works (1831).