Wie poetry, so painting. Both come from the imagination. Both tell stories of heroes like Odysseus, murderers like Macbeth, legendary treasures in the Rhine, mystical apparitions, witches, ghosts, fairies and goblins. Greco-Roman mythology, the Bible, Norse sagas, the Song of the Nibelungs, Dante’s Divine Comedy and Shakespeare’s plays. They are all handed down in words and pictures, find their way into the world through literature and painting, in this case through the hand of Johann Heinrich Füssli. Born in Switzerland and later adopting Britain, he left behind a turbulent body of work full of mysticism and mysterious reverie, which can be discovered in 56 paintings in the Jacquesmart-André House in the 8th arrondissement of the French capital.
He looks thoughtful and deep. A man with curly white hair, his head resting on his left hand, sits calmly in his chair with a manuscript beside him. A slight frown adorns his face. But what exactly is behind this brooding expression? The former pastor, who left Switzerland in 1764 to pursue his dream of an artistic and literary career in London, is called Füssli. His ambitions to become a writer failed early on, but he enjoyed fame and recognition in the arts even during his lifetime.
Without ever attending an art school, Füssli developed his own spectacular, self-taught style that frightened and captivated many people at the same time. Between romanticism and classicism, one will say later. The young man, who now lives in London, takes his inspiration from numerous visits to Covent Garden and the Theater Royal Drury Lane. Captured on his canvases, the crucial scenes of the most famous plays pause and stand still for a moment. The gestures and facial expressions of the characters sparkle with passion, capturing precisely those moments when fates are decided and stories stand at the crossroads between tragedy and comedy.
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A flying, devilish-eyed Robin Goodfellow in Midsummer Night’s Dream, who is the witty assistant to the fairy king Oberon. The frightened pale Hamlet, heir to the throne of Denmark, being reminded of his fate of revenge by the ghost of his dead father. The death scene, in which Romeo bends desperately over his lover before stabbing himself. The strong play of light and shadow also increases the drama of the scenery in all paintings. But Füssli is particularly interested in the tragedy of Macbeth, which he got to know at a young age and even translated into German himself. Various scenes capture the attention of the now appointed member and teacher of the Royal Academy. He processed his impressions of the much-performed play, created gloomy depictions and interpreted Shakespeare’s poetry visually.
