Art Institute of Chicago

Sketch for "Oath on the Rütli" (recto), Female Figure (verso)

Henry Fuseli (Swiss, active in England, 1741–1825)

Date

1779–81 (recto); 1785–90 (verso)

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

United Kingdom

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

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