academicians made conservative or doctrinaire approaches less viable.
Eighteenthcentury art practice also had its dissidents and innovators, particularly as the century drew to
a close, who helped to reinvigorate and broaden the concerns of academic artists. In Britain, Henry Fuseli
(1741–1825) and Benjamin West, both of whom occupied positions of responsibility at the Royal
Academy, were innovators in terms of the subjects and styles they used, which included (in the former
case) eroticism and fantasy, and (in the latter) the natural, romantic and “exotic.” A portrait thought to
represent the artist John Cartwright (Figure 1.6) shows the sitter in an intense mental state often
associated with the Fuseli’s own creativity. James Barry (1741–1806) was ferociously independent of the
Royal Academy, from which he was expelled in 1799, as well as being critical of the British political
establishment (Hoock, 2003, 190–191). His attempts to work in his own manner were very much a part of
early trends in Romantic attitudes to art but also came at great expense as his work, like Fuseli’s, secured
little financial support. He died in poverty. What this seems to show with regard to London academic
artistic culture is that more discreet forms of “originality” (e.g. Reynolds’ blending of portraiture and
mythological references, see Chapter 2) were more easily achieved within the confines of the Royal
Academy than were more radical innovations.
Figure 1.6 Henry Fuseli: Probably John Cartwright, black chalk, 32.4 × 50.2 cm, c.1779. National
Portrait Gallery, London.
Source: © National Portrait Gallery, London.Artistic autonomy is now considered to be one of the markers of modernity. There was certainly scope in
the eighteenth century for artists to flourish outside the safety net provided by academies, although there
were risks. Artists’ studios provided spaces in which they could create works independently and free