The Nightmare

When Fuseli showed this at the Royal Academy in 1782, painting was supposed to be about noble subjects from history and scripture. Instead he hung up a scene from inside a bad dream, and it made his name overnight. A woman is thrown back across her bed in deep sleep, arms trailing to the floor. On her chest squats a small grinning demon, an incubus, and out of the dark curtains a blind-eyed horse pushes its head into the room. The word nightmare once carried the idea of a crushing weight sitting on the sleeper, and Fuseli painted that weight literally. Prints of it sold widely, and it turned up as a reference in cartoons and satires for years. Fuseli painted several versions. This one has passed through the sale rooms and now hangs in Detroit.