Collection Online

Browse by artist name

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Milton, when a youth

Milton, when a youth
 (c. 1796-1799)

Medium
oil on canvas
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1981
Reproduction requests
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
 

About this work

This painting was one of the forty works Fuseli exhibited in London (1799–1800) as the ‘Milton Gallery’. The majority of these paintings were of subjects from the poet John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). This painting is based on a legend which relates that, when a student, Milton fell asleep under a tree. In due course a young foreign woman paused near him to write in pencil two lines of Italian verse on a slip of paper, which she left him. He was never to see her, but said this episode inspired him to compose Paradise Lost.

Artwork Details

Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
128.0 × 103.0 cm
Accession Number
E1-1981
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1981
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Reproduction requests
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
Subjects (general)
History and Legend Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
men (male humans) Milton, John poets sleeping women (female humans) youth (people)
Frame
Reproduction, 2000, based on a frame contemporary with the painting

Frame

The former framing of Fuseli Milton, when a youth, c.1796-99, was made in 1981, at the time of acquisition (the painting was acquired unframed). A file card notes the frame being made from ‘Australian red pine. Silver gilded and artificially patinated.’ It is a hybrid style with no apparent historical precedent or relationship to the frames Fuseli may have used. (above)
Considerable research was undertaken, starting in 1998, to determine a new frame for the Fuseli.
Correspondence with the John Soanes Museum, London, the Royal Academy, London and Tate Gallery, London, sought to resolve a prototype for the frame, based on an original framing of a Fuseli from a similar date.
The frame chosen to reproduce for the NGV painting came from a Fuseli in Tate Gallery, ‘The Shepherds Dream’.
The frame, hand carved in timber and gilded with 23.5 carat gold, was made in London. (top)
The frame was fitted to the painting in 2000.

Frame Details

Framemaker
Reproduction - commissioned by the NGV
Date
2000
Materials

Jelutong, European lime, Quebec Yellow pine and 23.5 carat gold leaf.

Discover more

Essay
Henry Fuseli’s Milton when a youth
Essay
Away with the fairies. Edwin Landseer’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Titania and Bottom, 1848–1851
Essay
Eroticism, myth and the bullfight: Picasso’s Femme Torero I and Corrida
Essay
Obituary: Emma Devapriam, 1933–2005
Essay
Index 1945–2010

Explore the collection

Diaphanous figures no. 4 YU Hong Caprice Ethel GABAIN Two pencil sketches Charles Samuel KEENE Two old men disputing REMBRANDT Harmensz. van Rijn Circe Bertram MACKENNAL Peonies and head of a woman John RUSSELL The Mayor's Cup William KERR Untitled David TENIERS II 10 Rillington Place Brett WHITELEY Girl reading Barse MILLER Two Pennorth Phil MAY Give us a Bite Phil MAY What Betsy Ann Makes of it Phil MAY (Minstrel) Edwin LANDSEER The finding of the True Cross COLA dell'Amatrice Great dancing pair Erich HECKEL Caricature of an abbe and other figures Study of an architectural detail UNKNOWN Untitled Adriaen van OSTADE The victory of faith St George HARE Mother and child Cornelis de VOS Untitled Phil MAY Man absorbed in landscape John OLSEN Shearing the rams Tom ROBERTS Untitled Phil MAY Merry go round Konrad SRZEDNICKI Hero and Leander Nicolas RÉGNIER A monk with a book TITIAN An Expert Harry FURNISS Landscape with two figures by a stream Joshua CRISTALL A Dilemma Phil MAY