Sketch for "Oath on the Rütli" (recto), Female Figure (verso)
Henry Fuseli
1779–1790
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 76 × 67.5 cm (29 15/16 × 26 9/16 in.); Framed: 79.4 × 69.3 cm (31 1/4 × 27 1/4 in.)
- Genre
- oil on canvas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)paintingpaintcanvaswomanoil on canvasnudessketchingSoldiersmenoil paint (paint)painting (image making)swordspainting techniquesstudyoil paintingeuropean paintingSketch18th CenturyNature
About
Although Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, he was born Johann Heinrich Füssli in Zurich, Switzerland. This is a preliminary study for the artist’s first important commission, The Oath on the Rütli, in Zurich’s city hall. Both the study and the final painting depict the oath sworn on the Rütli meadow in 1291 by representatives of three Swiss cantons (territories) against the ambitions of their Habsburg overlords. This sketch, with its limited palette and loose, expressive brushstrokes, shows the artist thinking through questions of tone and mood.
