Henry Fuseli's The nightmare: an examination of the recent scholarship

During his lifetime, Henry Fuseli gained great fame for his painting The Nightmare; however, his art fell largely into obscurity during the nineteenth century. It wasnt until the twentieth century when some critics perceived a kinship between Surrealist ideas and goals and Fuselis work that the artist reemerged into artistic discourse. From this point, artists and art historians examined Fuselis masterwork, The Nightmare, in order to understand how the artist and his painting fit with practices and perspectives of his contemporaries and what made him stand apart. This paper will examine the scholarship about Fuselis painting and how it has affected our interpretation of the work of art while also allowing us to see the perspectives and interests of the scholars themselves.