The Nightmare

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.

Fuseli studied theology in Zürich and later studied art in Italy from 1770 to 1778. Living in London thereafter, he became known for his literary and theatrical subjects. The Nightmare, which was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1782, owes its enduring fame to two principal factors. It was one of the first paintings to successfully depict an intangible idea, rather than an event, a person, or a story. In addition, the precise intentions of the artist remain elusive.

The likeliest of many theories about the source of Fuseli’s inspiration is perhaps that this picture started out as a visual pun. The creature squatting on the woman is an incubus or mara. It is this demon who is causing the nightmare, rather than the horse (or “night-mare”) that peers from behind the drapes. In contemporary folklore, horses were often linked with nocturnal visitations. They were ridden by night-hags and witches, and “hagridden” was used as a term for someone troubled by nightmares.

The horror is heightened by the unsettling pose of the woman, which creates an air of sexual menace. There is a theory that the picture was designed as an act of sexual revenge. On the reverse of the canvas, there is an unfinished portrait of a girl, who may have been the object of Fuseli’s unrequited affections. However, the pose may simply reflect contemporary scientific theories, which fascinated Fuseli, about the physical causes of nightmares, such as sleeping with the head lower than the feet.