January Of the fifty drawings on view plus one by John Brown; c. Surprisingly, no show devoted to this compelling and provocative material constituting more than one tenth of approximately 1, extant drawings by the artist has ever been mounted. It could be argued, of course, that this is the focus of the entire exhibition, but it helps to break up what might otherwise seem a relentless progression of increasingly eccentric femmes fatales into semiotic or iconographic taxonomies. She can also be seen to exercise a good deal of personal autonomy.
A dozen drawings fall into this category, several of which are large, highly finished works in watercolour and gouache no. One of this group, the small but powerful Kallipyga no. It depicts Sophia leaning against an altar-like console with ithyphallic supports, staring into a mirror, her skirts hiked up above her waist to expose her buttocks.
Again, Sophia clearly posed for some of these, whereas others depict actual or imagined sex workers. Some of the works in this group, such as The Debutante ; Tate; no.
A disturbing subcategory in this section depicts women enacting enigmatic rituals of sadistic violence. Unlike anything else of the time, they are also a testament to his unfettered mind and Gothic sensibility.
That they survive at all is miraculous. See T. Taylor, ed. Edited by David H. ISBN β1ββ29β8. Hope, ed. Tomaselli, ed. Email address. You will be signed in for 6 hours upon logging in. Forgot password? New to The Burlington Magazine? Subscribe now. Type to search. By using this website you agree to our Cookie policy. January Vol. Sophia Fuseli, her hair in large rolls, with pink gloves, in front of a brown curtain, by Henry Fuseli.
