The bodies of four people are locked together through dramatic gestures and poses against a dark background in this nearly square painting. The two men have pale, peachy skin and the two women have ash-white skin, and together they almost fill the composition.
   A man with a white beard and hair wears a short-sleeved brown garment and sits to the right of center. His body faces our left and both of his arms reach straight out at shoulder height. His head juts forward and his bulging eyes appear white. He points at a younger man kneeling in front of him with his left hand. Near the left edge of the canvas, the younger man’s body also faces our left as he kneels on his left knee. His body leans forward over his right knee, which is bent so that foot is flat on the ground. His head is thrown back and his right hand, on our left, crosses his body and is raised as if to shield his face. His other arm extends so the raised flat of his hand is close to the old man’s face. The young man has dark hair and wears a tight-fitting, short-sleeved, golden yellow tunic.
   One woman with long blond hair rests her hands and leans her forehead onto the old man’s knee in the lower right corner. The second woman stands behind the pair of men with her arms spread wide so one hand reaches over the shoulder of the old man, and her other hand nearly touches the younger man’s head. She has long, curly brown hair, and she looks at the older man with her lips parted. Both women wear white and pale gray garments. There is the suggestion of blue sky beyond some trees along the left edge of the composition but the rest of the background is deep in shadow.

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   Fuseli, a native of Switzerland, began his career in England as a history painter. He developed an expressionistic style composed of a unique blend of influences—German romanticism, the monumental vision of Michelangelo, and the physical and psychological exaggerations of the 16th–century Italian mannerists.

   Fuseli's own pessimism and fascination with the extremes of human passion are evident. He heightened the intensity of this scene from Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus by placing Oedipus and his children in a dark, shallow space. The tragedy of the father's curse is played out through the gestures of the four figures. Polynices, who had expelled his blind father from Thebes and left him to live as a beggar, has come to ask his father's support in overthrowing his brother. Oedipus, enraged at his son's request, stretches out his accusing arms and levies his dreadful curse, by which each son would die at the hands of the other. Ismene, weak and despairing, kneels with her head on her father's knee. Antigone, whose strength and determination have kept her father alive, is highlighted above the terrible drama as she reaches out to protect her brother with one hand and restrain Oedipus with the other. Her gesture, however heroic, is futile.

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