| Maker(s): | Fuseli, Henry
| | Culture: | Swiss (1741 - 1825)
| | Title: | Lady Constance, Arthur and Salisbury ("Here I and sorrow sit," Shakespeare, King John, Act III, scene 1)
| | Date Made: | 1783
| | Type: | Painting
| | Materials: | oil on laid paper mounted on canvas
| | Place Made: | Switzerland
| | Measurements: | sheet: 25 x 21 in.; 63.5 x 53.34 cm
| | Accession Number: | SC 1949.9.1
| | Credit Line: | Purchased with the gift of Eleanor Lamont Cunningham, class of 1932
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Currently on view |
Description:
costume/uniform; theater; interior; leisure/recreation; man; woman
Label Text:
Even before he moved to London in 1764, Fuseli often turned to Shakespeare for the subject matter of his paintings and drawings. This painting of 1783 shows the moment in "King John," act III, scene 1, when the Earl of Salisbury, on the right, has told Lady Constance of the impending marriage of King John's niece, Blanche of Spain, to the Dauphin Louis. This will thwart Constance's political ambitions for her son Arthur, King John's nephew, who sits at his mother's feet.
I will not go with thee
I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;
For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop.
To me and to the state of my great grief
Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up: here I and sorrows sit;
Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.
The melancholy despair of Lady Constance was the kind of subject that appealed to Fuseli, whose compositions are frequently filled with exaggerated descriptions of emotional torment. References to Michelangelo's work, which Fuseli studied during several years in Italy in the 1770s, appear in the poses of Lady Constance and Arthur. This scene was later engraved and published in Chalmers's "Shakespeare" in 1805 and was reworked by Fuseli in his final painting.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1949.9.1 |
