\paperw4995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \f1 \ATXsh255 Swiss-born British painter and art critic. \ATXsh4607 \par
\ATXsh255 In 1763 he moved to London, where Reynolds encouraged him to
take up painting. During a long stay in Italy (1770-78) he studied classical antiquity ôwith dismayö, interpreted in \i The ArtistÆs Despair before the Grandeur of Ancient Ruins\i0 (1778-80, Zurich, Kunsthaus) and was entranced by the art of Michelange
lo. Back in England, he pursued a prolific career in the fields of literature and painting, based on a pre-Romantic, visionary, and hallucinatory inspiration that influenced Blake and British Romantic culture.\ATXsh4607
