Question: In what year was the Swiss painter whose English biographer was John Knowles born?
Context: The Devon School is a fictional school created by author John Knowles in the novels "A Separate Peace" and" Peace Breaks Out."  It is based on Knowles' alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy.  Like Phillips Exeter during World War II, Devon is a boys' boarding school in New Hampshire.  Knowles places the school in a town that bears its name, specifically at the head of a quaint residential street called Gilman Street.  The school "emerged naturally from the town which had produced it."  "A Separate Peace" covers the summer of 1942 and the Winter Session of 1942-1943.  The senior year students are being prepared for the war.  The timeframe in "Peace Breaks Out" is 1946-1947.  In both of these books, Devon is portrayed as a boys' preparatory school, just as Phillips Exeter was at the time; although Phillips Exeter is today a co-educational school.  The Devon School is one of the most prominent fictional examples of a total institution. John Knowles (1781 – 21 July 1841) was the English biographer of Henry Fuseli, and author of works on Naval architecture. Henry Fuseli {'1': ", '2': ", '3': ", '4': "} (German: Johann Heinrich Füssli; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain.  Many of his works, such as "The Nightmare", deal with supernatural subject-matter.  He painted works for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, and created his own "Milton Gallery".  He held the posts of Professor of Painting and Keeper at the Royal Academy.  His style had a considerable influence on many younger British artists, including William Blake. Hans Jacob Ulrich (1798 in Zurich – 1877) was a Swiss painter.  Ulrich was brought up to be a merchant, but gave up business and devoted himself to painting.  He travelled in France, Italy, England, and the Netherlands for improvement, and became a successful painter of landscapes, sea-pieces, birds, and animals.  He was a professor at the Zurich Polytechnic.  He was an exhibitor at the Salon between 1824 and 1840.  Many of his landscapes were English in origin, and he was one of the first of his country to profit by the finer styles of the north in that branch of art.  Examples of his work exist in the museums of Orléans and Nantes.  C. Huber etched a series of sixty plates from his designs. Sir Robin St John Knowles CBE (born 7 April 1960), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Knowles, is a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Andy Knowles (born Andrew John Knowles, 30 June 1981, in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England) is an artist, director and musician. Geoffrey Burnand (1 January 1912 – 17 August 1997) was an English painter, theatrical designer and mural artist.  His distant relatives included the 19th Century Swiss painter Eugène Burnand and Sir Francis Burnand, editor of Punch magazine from 1880-1906. Winifred Eveleen Gérin née Bourne, OBE (7 October 1901 – 28 June 1981) was an English biographer born in Hamburg.  She is best known as a biographer of the Brontë sisters and their brother Branwell, whose lives she researched extensively.  "Charlotte Brontë: the Evolution of Genius" (1967) is regarded as her seminal work and received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize and the Royal Society of Literature Heinemann prize. John Knowles (1810–1880) was an English businessman who is well known as the proprietor of the Theatre Royal on Peter Street, Manchester from 1844 to 1875.  He was also a manufacturer of marble chimneypieces. John Knowles (fl.  1646–1668) was an English antitrinitarian preacher, imprisoned in 1665.
Answer: 1741