The Nightmare

1781

Oil on canvas, 101.7 × 127.1 cm. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit

A sleeping woman lies sprawled across a bed while a demon squats on her chest and a horse's head pushes through the curtains. The picture made the Swiss-born painter's name in London.

Shown at the Royal Academy in 1782. In a 2022 lecture, Martin Myrone of the Paul Mellon Centre notes that, unusually for Fuseli, it cited no poem or play.
Look at the woman's head and arm, hanging limp off the edge of the bed toward the floor.
Myrone links the curtained room to fashionable bedroom scenes by painters such as Jean-Baptiste Le Prince; the demon was Fuseli's twist.
The theme is the sleeping mind. Putting dreams and irrational fear on a public exhibition wall was a bold step that made the inner life a fit subject for painting.
First owned by Sir Brooke Boothby; the Detroit Institute of Arts bought it in 1955.

Royal Academy: Britain's royal academy of art, founded in London in 1768, with a yearly exhibition and a school; a separate body from the Society of Artists.

Image: Detroit Institute of Arts (open access) · Public domain