Male Figure with Left Arm Raised Seen from the Back, and Fragment of Old Man

Henry Fuseli · 1770/75

Medium

Brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over graphite, on cream laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper

Original size

57.3 × 46.2 cm (22 9/16 × 18 1/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

This dynamic study captures Fuseli at his most elemental — raw muscle, shadow, and the tension of a body in motion, rendered with extraordinary economy of line. Henry Fuseli spent the 1770s in Rome, immersing himself in the work of Michelangelo, and the influence is unmistakable here. The raised arm and torsion of the back echo the heroic anatomies of the Sistine Chapel, while Fuseli's layering of brown wash over graphite creates a warmth and depth that feels more alive than strict academic draughtsmanship. The fragment of an old man tucked into the composition suggests a working study — two observations from a single session, each as assured as the other. Fuseli rarely drew passively; even his studies carry a restless, almost theatrical intensity that would go on to define later masterworks like "The Nightmare," painted in 1781. Now held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, this piece seldom leaves its archive. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates its qualities faithfully — the tonal gradations of the wash, the pale highlights of the gouache, the underlying energy of a figure caught mid-gesture — onto canvas, so you can live with a work that most people will only ever encounter in a catalogue.