Titania findet am Strand den Zauberring

1804–1805

not on display

Henry Fuseli1741 Zürich – 1825 Putney Hill/London

In 1804/05 Füssli painted twelve small oil paintings as models for the English translation of Christoph Martin Wieland's 'Oberon' (1780). The poetically fantastic epic in the tradition of Ariost describes the adventures of the knight Huon and the kalif's daughter Amanda, interwoven in a fairy tale with the quarrels and reconciliation of the fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania.
While Amanda is kidnapped by pirates, she manages to leave behind the magic ring on the beach: Titania, floating to the wounded Huon, is magically attracted by it, for it is the wedding ring with which she will bind Oberon to her again (Oberon, X, 2 f.).
Titania's posture is adapted from Blake's illustration of Edward Young's 'The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality', V, 246, and is one of the few examples to back up Füssli's surviving dictum, 'Blake - he's d---d good to steal from'. Engraved in 1806 by James Heath, cf. David H. Weinglass: Prints and engraved Illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli. A catalogue raisonné (Aldershot 1994), no. 253.In: Kunsthaus Zürich. Gesamtkatalog der Gemälde und Skulpturen, Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft (ed.), edited by Christian Klemm, Franziska Lentzsch, Gian Casper Bott et al., Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2007.

Also known as

Titania findet am Strand den Zauberring. Wieland, Oberon X, 2/3 Titania Finds the Magic Ring on the Shore

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

image: 61 x 45 cm

Inventory number

1575

Credit line

Kunsthaus Zürich, 1923

Signature

Inscriptions

Catalogue raisonné

Schiff I.566.1226

Accession year

1923

Provenance

Johann Heinrich Füssli (*1741 Zürich, +1825 Putney Hill/London) (Künstler/in)
Verbleib unbekannt
Benjamin Sharpe (*1857, +1942) (Sammler/in), Hanwell Park (Middlesex)
[Verbleib unbekannt?]
1920 – 1923, Salon Bollag (Kunsthandel), Zürich
ab 1923, Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft | Kunsthaus Zürich (Museum), Zürich, Tausch

About the provenance

State of research 01.01.2007 Do you have questions, criticism, suggestions, and further information? Please send us a message to provenienzforschung(at)kunsthaus.ch.

Literature (general)

- Kunsthaus Zürich. Gesamtkatalog der Gemälde und Skulpturen, hrsg. von Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft et al., Sammlungskatalog, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2007, S. 66. - Henry Fuseli 1741-1825, Ausst.-Kat. Tate Gallery, London, 1975, No. 139. - Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825, Ausst.-Kat. Hamburger Kunsthalle, München: Prestel, 1974, No. 153, S. 191 (ill.). - Füssli. The Wild Swiss, hrsg. von Franziska Lentzsch u. a., Ausst.-Kat. Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2005, No. 93, S. 85 (ill.). - Gert Schiff: Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825, Bd. 2 von 2, Zürich: Berichthaus, 1973, No. 1226, S. 384 (ill.). - Gert Schiff: Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825. Vol. I: Text und Œuvrekatalog, Bd. 1 von 2, Zürich: Berichthaus, 1973, No. 1226, S. 566. - Füssli. Drama und Theater, hrsg. von Eva Reifert und Claudia Blank, Ausst.-Kat. Kunstmuseum Basel, München: Prestel, 2018, No. 24, S. 111. - Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825. Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Ausst.-Kat. Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, 1969, No. 84. - Henry Fuseli 1741-1825, Ausst.-Kat. Tate Gallery, London, London, 1975, No. 139, S. 112 (ill.). - Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825, hrsg. von Pro Helvetia, Ausst.-Kat. Museé du Petit Palais de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1975, No. 142 (ill.). - Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825 ; 17.6.-1.10., Ausst.-Kat. Musée Rath, Genf, Genf, 1978, No. 55.

Object type

painting

Classification

B 1[1] painting 16th to 18th century CHE

Keywords