Four for Fuseli

This work began in response to Sir Anthony van Dyck’s duel portrait: ‘George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol and William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford’ (c.1637). Here turned horizontally, the identities of the two young men now serve little importance other than establishing the background’s color palate, apart from a remaining astrolabe and bits of drapey. A Henry Fuseli sketch entitled ‘Three Women, an Amorino, and a Prostrate Man’(c.1769) appears to overtake the original subjects with a lust-filled environment of rich color and fantasy.