Description
Although Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, he was born Johann Heinrich Füssli in Zurich, Switzerland. This is a preliminary study for the artist’s first important commission, The Oath on the Rütli, in Zurich’s city hall. Both the study and the final painting depict the oath sworn on the Rütli meadow in 1291 by representatives of three Swiss cantons (territories) against the ambitions of their Habsburg overlords. This sketch, with its limited palette and loose, expressive brushstrokes, shows the artist thinking through questions of tone and mood.
Provenance
Possibly William F. E. Gurley (died 1943), Chicago [The picture was discovered, unstretched, among the holdings of the Department of Prints and Drawings in 1976. It is possible that it came to the Art Institute in 1922 or 1943 as part of the Gurley Bequest, a large collection of drawings many of which remained unaccessioned until the 1980s and 1990s]; transferred from the Department of Prints and Drawings to the Department of European Painting and accessioned as an anonymous gift, 1980
Sketch for "Oath on the Rütli" (recto), Female Figure (verso)
Henry Fuseli1779–81 (recto); 1785–90 (verso)
Accession Number
59989
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76 × 67.5 cm (29 15/16 × 26 9/16 in.); Framed: 79.4 × 69.3 cm (31 1/4 × 27 1/4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Anonymous gift