Why it matters
A woman lies asleep on her back while a demonic incubus crouches on her chest and a horse with blank eyes peers through the curtains. Its haunting eroticism shocked critics and made it Fuseli's first commercial success.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1781 and shown at the Royal Academy in 1782.
- Fuseli painted at least three other versions.
- It became a frequent source for Gothic authors such as Mary Shelley.
- It has been seen as anticipating psychoanalytic ideas about the unconscious.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Nightmare (CC BY-SA 4.0).
