The Nightmare

A white sofa, a calm evening, and above it the most famous bad dream in art. Picture Fuseli's Nightmare in your living room. Would you sit beneath it?

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli shows a woman flung across her bed in a white gown, her head hanging down. The demon of her dream squats on her chest and stares straight out at us. Behind the crimson curtains, a horse pushes its head into the room. Look closely at the horse's blank white eyes. They are what most people remember. Crimson curtains, a white gown and black shadow, theatrical and unsettling.

Fuseli painted it in 1781 and showed it at the Royal Academy in 1782. London was shocked, and he became famous almost overnight. He sold the painting for twenty guineas, while an engraving of it earned its publisher more than five hundred pounds. On the back of the canvas is an unfinished portrait of a young woman, perhaps Anna Landolt, whom Fuseli had hoped to marry. Fuseli painted several more versions, and the image spread across Europe in prints and cartoons. The original hangs in the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The look

Deep crimson curtains, a pale white gown and black shadow. Theatrical, unsettling and unforgettable. Gothic wall art for a dark academia study, a home library or a hallway that needs a story.

Gifting

A dramatic gift for a birthday or a housewarming. The painting behind a century of gothic fiction.

More like this

For more gothic art, see Witches' Sabbath by Francisco Goya in Gothic Memento Mori Art.