Unknown, British: Satan Leaving the Court of Chaos; oil on canvas, 102.9 x 127.2 cm. Ackland Fund. 75.35.1
The unknown artist who created this painting chose to illustrate one of the most famous English poems, Milton’s Paradise Lost. But the subject itself is an unusual one.
The anonymous Satan Leaving the Court of Chaos (circa 1800) depicts an unusual subject in an eccentric but distinctively English style. The unknown artist was clearly a follower of Johan Heinrich Fuseli, An immigrant from Switzerland who established himself as a controversial but celebrated artist in England, admired by a segment of the public but viewed as eccentric, and even mad, by mainstream taste.