Creator of Nightmares - by Christopher Baker (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A critical biography of the eighteenth-century painter.

Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) was one of the eighteenth century's most provocative and inventive artists. He is best known for his painting The Nightmare, which channeled a new form of gothic imagery for the Romantic age. This engaging study of the artist's career unveils Fuseli's complexities, navigating contradictions between literary and painted works, sacred and secular themes, and traditional patronage versus competitive exhibitions. Plotting Fuseli's trajectory from Zurich to Paris, Rome, and ultimately London, Creator of Nightmares paints an image of Fuseli as an astute marketer and self-proclaimed genius who transformed himself from a priest to an Enlightenment writer, a mercurial force in the art world, and finally a revered teacher.

Review Quotes

"Creator of Nightmares is lean and engaging, in many ways an ideal introduction to the painter.-- "Wall Street Journal"

"There is much to commend in this clear and scupulously researched biography: the author's deep familiarity with the whole corpus of Fuseli's works, his informed sense of the milieus in which Fuseli moved in London and in Rome, and his treatment of Fuseli's origins and early ambitions. This biography sends the reader back refreshed to the fascinating contrasts in the arts of the turn of the 19th century, host to both the daylight restraint of neoclassicism and the wild night-time riot of devils, witches, dreams and fire."-- "Literary Review"

"The Nightmare (1781) is one of the most recognisable paintings in art history, but, Baker notes, its creator is more of a mystery. Here, he makes a case for Fuseli being 'one of the most provocative, inventive and fascinating artists' of the late 18th century."-- "Apollo"

About the Author

Christopher Baker is editor of the Burlington Magazine and an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh. He is a former director at the National Galleries of Scotland.