One of 18th-century Britain’s most prolific narrative painters, Henry Fuseli found inspiration in many of Shakespeare’s plays. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and more, were all painted by Fuseli. But he seemed particularly taken by the supernatural, making Macbeth his favorite play. Many of these paintings were first seen in Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery. Fuseli later tried to do something similar with the works of poet John Milton. For much of his life, the Swiss-born artist worked in Britain, serving as Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy from 1790 until his death in 1825. One of his students was William Blake.
In commemoration of the April bicentennial of Fuseli’s death, we’re sharing a gallery of his paintings in our collection, including one of Macbeth and the witches that is considered perhaps the finest artwork collected by founders Henry and Emily Folger.
Fuseli in the Folger collection
Fuseli’s fantastical scene for a Shakespeare gallery
“When Macbeth meets with the witches on the heath (Act 1, scene 3), it is terrible, because he did not expect the supernatural visitation, but when he goes to the cave to ascertain his fate (Act IV, scene 1), it is no longer a subject of terror: hence I have endeavored to supply what is deficient in the poetry. …. I have endeavored to show a colossal head rising out of the abyss, and that head Macbeth’s likeness. What, I would ask, would be a greater object of terror to you, if, some night on going home, you were to find yourself sitting at your own table, either writing, reading, or otherwise employed? Would not this make a powerful impression on your mind?” —Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli’s dreamlike 1793 painting, Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head, is perhaps the finest artwork collected by Henry and Emily Folger. Many also consider it the Swiss-born artist’s greatest achievement, with a subject well suited to his favored themes of nightmare, fantasy, and terror.
The painting depicts Macbeth’s second encounter with the witches, in which they conjure up a series of apparitions beginning with a disembodied head—bearing a grotesque resemblance to Macbeth in Fuseli’s conception. As the head delivers its warning to “beware MacDuff,” the murderer-king recoils at an unbalanced angle that adds to the picture’s sense of unreality.
Fuseli’s work was originally commissioned for a Dublin-based Shakespeare Gallery, an exhibition that charged an entry fee and sold engravings of the works displayed, which later moved to London.
When the frame was cleaned in the late 1990s, the neatly lettered words “Macbeth Act 4 Scene 1 Hy Fuseli” were discovered on the frame above the painting, just as spectators at the Shakespeare Gallery would have seen them two centuries before.
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Quiz: Match the painting to the Shakespeare play
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