A Woman Sitting by the Window (“Evening Thou Bringest All”), from the first issue of Specimens of Polyautography
Henry Fuseli (published by Philipp André (German, active London, 1800–1805); and James Heath (British, 1757–1834))
1802, published 1803
- Medium
- Lithograph in black on cream wove paper, tipped onto mount with aquatint border in gray on cream wove paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image/primary support: 23.2 × 31.8 cm (9 3/16 × 12 9/16 in.); Secondary support: 37.2 × 49 cm (14 11/16 × 19 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- United Kingdom
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- The Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Specimens of Polyautography (published 1803), the portfolio of lithographs that included Fuseli’s print (as well as James Barry’s Eastern Patriarch and Benjamin West’s Angel of the Resurrection), contained the first lithographs published in Britain.
Lithography is a form of printing in which a drawing is made directly on limestone, which is then moistened and inked, the ink adhering only to the drawn marks. The resulting print thus retains the immediacy of the original drawing. The Greek inscription on Fuseli’s print, a quote from the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho which was reversed in the printing process, means “Evening, thou bringest all [things home].”
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
