Fuseli

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Swiss-born painter of the Romantic era, known for dreamlike and macabre works, who spent most of his career in England
2. The surname of an eighteenth and nineteenth century Swiss-British artist famous for his eerie, nightmarish imagery and dramatic figures
3. Name of a Zurich-born painter and art writer whose haunting, supernatural subjects made him a notable figure in British art

Etymology: Henry Fuseli was born Johann Heinrich Füssli in Zürich in 1741, and he changed his name when he settled in London in the 1760s. The Swiss family name Füssli was already known in Zürich, where it was carried by a line of artists, writers and clergymen. Its exact origin is uncertain, though it is likely connected to the German "Fuss" (foot). In England, the spelling "Füssli" was hard to pronounce and easy to misspell, so he adopted the anglicized form. Fuseli is now best known for "The Nightmare" (1781), a painting of a sleeping woman with a crouching incubus and a horse's head peering through the curtains. The image was popular enough that he painted several versions, and it helped make him a leading figure of the Gothic and Romantic imagination in Britain.