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The bodies of four people are locked together through dramatic gestures and poses against a dark background in this nearly square painting. The two men have pale, peachy skin and the two women have ash-white skin, and together they almost fill the composition. A man with a white beard and hair wears a short-sleeved brown garment and sits to the right of center. His body faces our left and both of his arms reach straight out at shoulder height. His head juts forward and his bulging eyes appear white. He points at a younger man kneeling in front of him with his left hand. Near the left edge of the canvas, the younger man’s body also faces our left as he kneels on his left knee. His body leans forward over his right knee, which is bent so that foot is flat on the ground. His head is thrown back and his right hand, on our left, crosses his body and is raised as if to shield his face. His other arm extends so the raised flat of his hand is close to the old man’s face. The young man has dark hair and wears a tight-fitting, short-sleeved, golden yellow tunic. One woman with long blond hair rests her hands and leans her forehead onto the old man’s knee in the lower right corner. The second woman stands behind the pair of men with her arms spread wide so one hand reaches over the shoulder of the old man, and her other hand nearly touches the younger man’s head. She has long, curly brown hair, and she looks at the older man with her lips parted. Both women wear white and pale gray garments. There is the suggestion of blue sky beyond some trees along the left edge of the composition but the rest of the background is deep in shadow.

Henry Fuseli

Oedipus Cursing His Son Polynices, 1786

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 61

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 149.8 x 165.4 cm (59 x 65 1/8 in.)

framed: 177.2 x 191.8 x 12.3 cm (69 3/4 x 75 1/2 x 4 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Paul Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1983.1.41

Artists / Makers

Henry Fuseli (artist) Swiss, 1741 - 1825

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

Fuseli, a native of Switzerland, began his career in England as a history painter. He developed an expressionistic style composed of a unique blend of influences—German romanticism, the monumental vision of Michelangelo, and the physical and psychological exaggerations of the 16th–century Italian mannerists.

Fuseli's own pessimism and fascination with the extremes of human passion are evident. He heightened the intensity of this scene from Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus by placing Oedipus and his children in a dark, shallow space. The tragedy of the father's curse is played out through the gestures of the four figures. Polynices, who had expelled his blind father from Thebes and left him to live as a beggar, has come to ask his father's support in overthrowing his brother. Oedipus, enraged at his son's request, stretches out his accusing arms and levies his dreadful curse, by which each son would die at the hands of the other. Ismene, weak and despairing, kneels with her head on her father's knee. Antigone, whose strength and determination have kept her father alive, is highlighted above the terrible drama as she reaches out to protect her brother with one hand and restrain Oedipus with the other. Her gesture, however heroic, is futile.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/british-paintings-16th-19th-centuries.pdf

Provenance

Sold October 1791 by the artist to William Roscoe. (sale, Liverpool, 28 September 1816, no. 154, as Oedipus devotes to the Infernal Gods His Son Polynices...); purchased by Baxter.[1] (Maltzahn Gallery, London), in 1973; (Weiss Antiques, Zürich), in 1973; purchased 1974 by Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.

[1] Hugh Macandrew, "Henry Fuseli and William Roscoe," Liverpool Libraries, Museums and Arts Committee Bulletin 8 (1959-1960): 22-23, 35 (appendix I, no. 6), as whereabouts unknown since the Roscoe sale in 1816.

Associated Names

Baxter
Maltzahn Gallery, Ltd.
Mellon, Paul
Roscoe, William
Sale, Liverpool
Weiss Antiques A.G.

Exhibition History

1786: Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1786, no. 84.

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro.

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is loosely plain woven; it has been lined. The thinly and smoothly applied white ground almost masks the weave of the canvas. The painting is executed in a variety of techniques. The figures are modeled in opaque paint ranging from thin to moderately thick (it is thickest in the figure of Polynices), with thin brown glazes in the surface layer and slight impasto in the highlights; there are layers of light gray underpainting beneath the flesh tones, and in the case of Polynices and Antigone the contours of the hands are defined by thin red glazes. The background is partly executed in thin brown glazes; where the paint is thicker, notably in the lower right quadrant, there is pronounced traction crackle which suggests the presence of bitumen. The canvas has been damaged by two major tears on the left and by smaller tears in the lower half of the picture, all of which have been restored. The brown glazes, in the figures as well as in the background, have been severely abraded. The fairly thin natural resin varnish has not discolored.

Bibliography

1959: Macandrew, Hugh. "Henry Fuseli and William Roscoe." Liverpool Libraries, Museums and Arts Committee Bulletin 8 (1959-1960): 21, 22, 23, 35 (appendix 1, no. 6).

1977: Schiff, Gert and Paola Viotto. L'opera completa di Füssli. Milan, 1977: 88, no. 22, 89, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 414, no. 591, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 161, repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 75-80, color repro. 77.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 147, repro.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 272-273, no. 220, color repro.