Formerly entitled 'Silence' or 'Il Silenzio' this drawing was identified by Gert Schiff as a depiction of Martha Hess, a member of a family known to Fuseli in his home town Zurich. On his return to Switzerland from Rome in October 1778 Fuseli did a drawing of himself reading to Martha and her sister Magdelena Schweiger-Hess (Zurich, Kunsthaus; Schiff (op.cit.) no. 580, repr.); Fuseli was flirting with Magdalena at the time, although having a love affair with Anna Landhold. In comparison with Magdalena, whom Schiff describes as 'a coquette, and of a irritable nervous constitution', Martha was more etherial and tended towards religious ecstacy (G.Schiff, Henry Fuseli, 1741-1825, exhibition catalogue, London, Tate Gallery, Febuary-March 1975, p.52 under no. 4, the Zurich drawing repr.).

Fuseli also drew Martha in profile for J.H. Lip's engraving in the French edition of J.C. Lavater's Essai sur la Physiognomie, 1781 onwards (Zurich, Kunsthaus; Schiff 1973, no.575, repr.; for the engraving see D.H. Weinglass, Prints and Engraved Illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli, Aldershot and Brookfield, Vermont, 1994, p.45 no.58, repr.). He also did a revised drawing of this profile for Thomas Holloway's engraving in the English edition of 1791 (formerly Edward Croft Murray collection, Schiff 1973, no.848 repr.; the engraving Weinglass 1994, pp.111-2 no.105, repr). A further study of Martha's head, seen in half-profile from below, was sold in these Rooms on 14 April 1992, lot 11, repr.

Martha Hess died of consumption in December 1779 but Fuseli continued to draw her from memory, as in two drawings of 'Silence', this example and another freer sketch, also full face but showing her seated full-length (British Museum, Schiff 1973, no.850 repr.). Schiff dates the B.M. example 1780-85 and our example 1780-90

We are grateful to David Weinglass for his help in preparing this catalogue entry