Search results
The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by Swiss artist Henry Fuseli. It shows a woman in deep sleep with her arms thrown below her, and with a demonic and ape-like incubus crouched on her chest. The painting's dreamlike and haunting erotic evocation of infatuation and obsession was a huge popular success.
- 101.6 cm × 127 cm (40.0 in × 50 in)
- Henry Fuseli
- 1781
Dec 15, 2021 · Learn about the painting The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, a Romantic artist who depicted a woman in a nightmare with a demonic creature. Explore the historical, cultural, and artistic context of this Gothic and grotesque masterpiece.
- Alicia du Plessis
- 1781
- ( Author And Art History Expert )
- painting
- Who Was Henry Fuseli?Henry Fuseli’s original name was Johann Heinrich Füssli, and he was born in 1741 on February 7 in Zürich, Switzerland. He died in April 1825. Fusel...
- What Does The Nightmare Painting Symbolize Exactly?We have come to the part that you are probably dying to know: what does it all mean? We need to look at various folklore, legendary, and mythologic...
- Who Was Anna Landolt?It is also important to note that some scholars also debate about whether Fuseli was depicting himself as the Incubus. He was apparently deeply in...
Dec 6, 2023 · Learn about the Swiss-English painter's famous painting that depicts a woman under the influence of a nightmare, an incubus, and a horse. Explore the dark themes, literary references, and cultural impact of this Romantic masterpiece.
Learn about the Swiss-English painter's famous painting that depicts a woman under the influence of a dark spirit and a horse. Explore the historical, literary, and psychological contexts of this Romantic and Gothic masterpiece.
- I have heard a theory that idea of an _incubus_ crouched on the chest originated from the age old ha...An alternative theory that I have entertained, is that the sleep-disturbing incubus 'sits on the chest' because there is a relationship between nig...
- Does an "incubator" that a baby stays in when born have the same root origin as "incubus"? I certain...I've checked in the Oxford English Dictionary, and both "incubator" and "incubus" ultimately derive from the same Latin word, namely "incubare" (to...
- The printing process used by Thomas Burke is referred to as "stipple engraving". How does this diffe...Stipple engraving is when several indents (stipples) are made with a burin into a plate to create the print, similar to the stippling style we see...
- The text says "the various figures demonstrate Fuseli’s broad knowledge of art history;" how so? I'd...by that I believe they mean that the use of symbolism shows Fuseli knew what he was doing and had studied the use of figures and symbols in art his...
- Does anyone else think the woman is not lying on a mattress, but a corpse? It looks rather like a to...she is intended to be sleeping, not dead, indicated by her carefully chosen position and other factors taken at the time to mean she was asleep, al...
The Nightmare, oil painting that was created in 1781 and is Swiss-born artist Henry Fuseli’s most famous painting, as well as a landmark in the development of the Romantic movement. It has become an iconic image that is familiar in popular culture and much parodied.
- Iain Zaczek
Jan 12, 2021 · Learn about the historical, Gothic, and psychological meanings of Fuseli's famous painting, The Nightmare, which depicts a woman and a demon in a dark scene. Explore the artist's biography, the Royal Academy reception, and the sublime aesthetic of Romanticism.
3 days ago · Henry Fuseli painted The Nightmare in 1781. It is probably his most notorious artwork. To this day, it remains an iconic gothic depiction for its unconventional subject matter, referencing popular themes in 19th-century psychoanalysis, such as the troubled unconscious mind and the terror of sleepers.
