# The Nightmare

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/the-nightmare-r28dab1665c376a>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [FUSELI, John Henry](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300>)
- Date: 1751-1800
- Technique: Oil on canvas, 77 x 64 cm

## Commentary

Fuseli did a total of four variations on The Nightmare, probably his best-known theme. The example in Frankfurt is the second variation. Though the motif was not inspired by any specific literary model, it would be unthinkable without a knowledge of ghost stories, especially English ones. The figure of the woman lying asleep or unconscious is extremely elongated and distorted, not because Fuseli could do no better, but in order to visualize the horrible oppressiveness of the gnome crouched on the woman&#39;s breast, a nightmare and incarnation of unconscious terrors. In the gap between the curtains in the background appears the ghostly head of a blind horse, which anticipates the demoniac aspect given this animal especially in later French Romanticism.

## Related artworks

- [Adam and Eve](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/adam-and-eve-r67ec62782d527e>)
- [Brunhilde Observing Gunther, Whom She Has Tied to the Ceiling](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/brunhilde-observing-gunther-whom-she-has-tied-to-the-ceiling-r478f1dd80b1642>)
- [Courtesan](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/courtesan-r27bf09ac33fa99>)
- [Dante and Virgil on the Ice of Kocythos](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/dante-and-virgil-on-the-ice-of-kocythos-r4c47e062ea94f3>)
- [Ezzelin and Meduna](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/ezzelin-and-meduna-r85cc511807026a>)
- [Gertrude, Hamlet and the Ghost of Hamlet&#39;s Father](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/gertrude-hamlet-and-the-ghost-of-hamlets-father-re120804052024a>)
- [Lady Macbeth](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/lady-macbeth-rb6ffa44a96093e>)
- [Lady Macbeth with the Daggers](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/lady-macbeth-with-the-daggers-rfbef91251b4b8b>)
- [Leonore Discovering the Dagger Left by Alonzo](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/leonore-discovering-the-dagger-left-by-alonzo-r338e5c84db32d8>)
- [Portrait of a Young Woman](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/portrait-of-a-young-woman-r27bec1327e907d>)
- [Self-Portrait](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/self-portrait-rbb1798153b69df>)
- [Silence](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/fuseli-john-henry-rf473b4aa66a300/silence-r53c07e7e76852c>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)