Art Institute of Chicago
Portrait of a Woman (Martha Hess)
Henry FuseliLinkedCulture matchlcp-51a294594c6f
- Date
- 1781
- Medium
- Charcoal and black chalk, with stumping, heightened with white chalk and touches of red-orange pastel, on grayish-tan laid paper
- Culture
- England
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 36126
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
On a visit to Zurich, Switzerland, in 1778–79, Fuseli made several portraits of Martha Hess, a niece of the artist’s friend Johann Kaspar Lavater. Lavater eventually incorporated prints after Fuseli’s drawings of Martha and her sister into his famous Essays on Physiognomy (published 1789). Martha was described as ethereal and inclined toward religious fanaticism, both features consistent with how Fuseli presents her. Brilliantly lit, her ecstatic face appears to be emerging from darkness. Fuseli drew almost exclusively with his left hand, as evidenced here by his hatching (closely spaced parallel lines used for shading), which moves from upper left to lower right.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Provenance
- Henry Scipio Reitlinger (died 1950), London, before 1973 [Lugt supp. 2274a]. Private collection, Switzerland [invoice]. Mrs. Jacob Kaplan, New York [invoice]. K. J. Hewett, London, by 1973 [Schiff 1973]. Sven Gahlin (or Ganlin). Sold by Helene C. Seiferheld Gallery, New York, to the Art Institute, 1971.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033973
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