Margaret Fuller’s Reading Worlds

WorkSir Charles Bell

“Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting”

Sir Charles Bell (1774–1842)

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Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

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When Fuller engaged with this work

No datable encounters with Bell, Sir Charles have been catalogued yet.

Undated

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n.d.—

On Michelangelo and Raphael

p30–33
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“Sir Charles Bell – Anatomy of expression in painting: a good sensible book. Shades of thought well worked. All that he thinks he has, he has.”

Fuller, Margaret. "On Michelangelo and Raphael." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fuller explicitly names the book: 'Sir Charles Bell – Anatomy of expression in painting.' She writes summaries and paraphrases of Bell's arguments over several pages (pp. 30–33): on the antique, the elephant's eye, Jupiter modeled on the lion, Hercules on the bull, early Greek sculptors, public dancers' arms vs. legs, and the advantages of sculptural training for painters. The full title is “Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting” (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1806). A second edition appeared in 1824 titled Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression.