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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H , Case PD, Shelf 346

Drawing

1809 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Füssli's personal obsessions often informed his art. This drawing depicts three courtesans who are sexually engaged with a naked man who is shown hiding his head among their bodies. The erotic content of this sheet is clear and is reinforced by the inscription at the bottom which derives from a line in the Greek tragedy Prometheus, in which its author Aeschylus blended sexual and violent topics.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Pencil and watercolour on paper, mounted on card.
Brief description
Henry Fuseli. Erotic drawing of three women and a recumbent man, dated 1809
Physical description
Drawing of an erotic scene with three women and one man.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 190mm
  • Image width: 243mm
  • Sheet height: 220mm
  • Sheet width: 277mm
Marks and inscriptions
  • P.C. 28.Nov.09. Q.E. Sept. 10. (Inscribed in pencil and dated. The initials 'P.C.' stand for Purser's Cross, the name of the bookseller Joseph Johnson's house in Chelsea, and 'Q.E.' for Queen's Elm, Chelsea.)
  • (Inscribed in ink with a sentence in Greek.)
Credit line
Given by Michael Sadleir
Summary
Füssli's personal obsessions often informed his art. This drawing depicts three courtesans who are sexually engaged with a naked man who is shown hiding his head among their bodies. The erotic content of this sheet is clear and is reinforced by the inscription at the bottom which derives from a line in the Greek tragedy Prometheus, in which its author Aeschylus blended sexual and violent topics.
Bibliographic references
  • Lentzsch, Franziska, (Ed.), <i>Füssli: The Wild Swiss</i>, Zurich, Scheidegger & Speiss, Zürich, 2005.
  • Martin Myrone Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination London: Tate, 2006. 224p. ISBN 1854375822.
  • Gottardo, Ketty (editor and contributor) Solkin, David H (editor and contributor) Beyer, Jonas (contributor) Fend, Mechtild (contributor) Fuseli and the modern woman: Fashion, Fantasy, Fetishism London : The Courtauld Gallery ; Zürich : Kunsthaus Zürich, 2022
Collection
Accession number
E.108-1952

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Record createdMay 22, 2006
Record URL
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