Gothic Nightmares explores
the work of Henry Fuseli and
William Blake in the context
of the Gothic – the taste for
fantastic and supernatural
themes which dominated
British culture from around
1770 to 1830.
Henry Fuseli
The Nightmare exhibited 1782
Oil on canvas, 1210 x 1473 x 89 mm
Lent by the Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr and Mrs Bert L. Smokler and Mrs Lawrence A.
FleischmanThis painting created a sensation when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782.
What is the subject of this painting? We may never be sure; Fuseli wanted his picture to intrigue
us. The leering imp may embody the physical effects of a nightmare, or be an emblem of sexual
desire. Is this picture an allegory, an illustration of a literary source, or something more personal?
William Blake
Plate 33 from Jerusalem
(copy 'A'), printed around 1820
Relief etching, uncoloured
© Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum
This print shows the motif of The
Nightmare being stretched and
reinterpreted in the most radical and
complex way. It is from the original
‘illuminated’ version of Blake’s poem
Jerusalem. The lower scene shows
the female figure of Jerusalem laying
flat, with the ‘insane and most
deform’d’ Spectre evoked by the text
hovering over her.
Henry Fuseli, Prometheus 1770-1771
Pen and ink on paper, 150 x 222 mm
Lent by the Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett
This is an example of the results of the ‘five-point’ drawing games Fuseli and his friends engaged in
while in Rome The game involved placing dots in a random pattern on a sheet and joining these with
the head and extremities of a drawn figure. Some of these dots are still visible here. The essence of the
game was speed and facility, rather than plodding correctness.
Richard Cosway
Prometheus circa 1785-1800
Pen and brown ink on paper, 225 x184 mm
Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach
Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and
Tilden Foundations.
Thomas Banks
The Falling Titan 1786
Marble 838 x 902 x 584 mm
Lent by the Royal Academy of Arts, LondonCast from the heavens, a rebellious Titan crashes
through rocks while a tiny satyr and goat flee for their lives. According to classical mythology, the
giant Titans had sought to overthrow heaven but their revolution failed and they were hurled to
earth to make way for Zeus and his family. Banks was a close friend of Fuseli. Although this work
is highly refined in its execution, it shows their shared interest in strange and savage themes.
William Blake
The Punishment of The Thieves 1824-7
Chalk, pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 372 x 527 mm
This drawing represents the ‘Punishment of the Thieves’ that Dante and Virgil witness in the
eighth circle of Hell, described in Cantos 24 and 25 of Dante’s Inferno (1319-21). Here, punished
souls are attacked by snakes and transformed into monstrous serpents. Blake makes the most of
the possibilities for grotesque spectacle offered by the medieval poet.
Theodore Von Holst
Frontispiece to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
published by Colburn and Bentley, London 1831
Steel engraving in book 93 x 71 mm
Private collection, Bath
This is the first illustrated edition of Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, originally published
in 1818. Von Holst’s design evokes the
heroic, heavy-limbed figures of Fuseli. The
setting, with its dramatic lighting and
medieval tracery, is thoroughly Gothic in
style.
Henry Fuseli
The Witches Show Macbeth the Descendants of Banquo (Die Hexen zeigen Macbeth Banquos Nachkommen) 1773/1779
Pen and wash on paper, 360 x 420 mm © 2006 Kunsthaus, Zürich. All rights reserved.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth is shown a vision of the future by the three witches: a procession of the eight
kings who will descend from his rival Banquo, the last holding up a mirror that throws light into
Macbeth’s eyes. This design was created in 1773 and reworked while the artist was briefly revisiting his
home town of Zürich in 1779. It was almost certainly a compositional study for a spectacular painting
(now lost) that Fuseli exhibited in London in 1777.
Henry Fuseli
Buoncante da Montefeltro circa 1774-1778
Pen and ink and wash 475 x 353 mm © Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum
Fuseli renders a scene of spiritual conflict from Dante’s Purgatory (1319- 21) as a grandiose physical
drama. Buonconte da Montefeltro was killed in battle in 1289, during Italy’s bloody civil wars. In
Dante’s account, good and evil angels vie for his body briefly, but his soul is saved because of one
final tear of repentance. This is the scene that Fuseli dramatizes
Henry Fuseli
Satan Starting from the Touch
of Ithuriel's Spear (Satan flieht, von
Ithuriels Speer beruht) 1779
Oil on canvas, 2305 x 2763 mm
Milton’s Satan, represented
here as a heroicallyproportioned figure, leaps
back from the slightest touch
of the angel Ithuriel’s spear.
He protects Adam and Eve,
who slumber in each other’s
arms at the bottom of the
composition. This canvas was
exhibited by Fuseli at the
Royal Academy in 1780. It was
one of the works which made
his reputation as a painter of
infernal subject-matter.
Him thus intent Ithuriel with his Spear
Touch’d lightly; for no falsehood can endure
Touch of Celestial temper, but returns
Of force to its own likeness: up he starts
Discoverd and surpriz’d. As when a spark
Lights on a heap of nitrous Powder, laid
Fit for the Tun some Magazin to store
Against a rumord Warr, the Smuttie graine
With sudden blaze diffus’d, inflames the Aire:
So started up in his own shape the Fiend. John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667, Book IV, ll.810-19
James Barry
Satan and his Legions Hurling Defiance
Toward The Vault of Heaven circa 1792-1794
Etching,and engraving 746 x 504 mm
© Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum
In a scene from Milton’s Paradise Lost
(1667), Satan and his troops, having been
expelled from Heaven for their rebellion,
glare back from Hell and rage against God.
Barry has used a low viewpoint and strong
tonal contrasts to emphasise the heroic
proportions of Satan. His rugged,
unconventional printmaking technique
enhances this characterization.
after Henry Fuseli
Satan Summoning his Legions,
engraved illustration to John
Milton, Paradise Lost published
by F.I. du Roveray 1802
Engraving in a bound volume 114 x 88 mm
Private collection, London
Satan has been expelled from
heaven, and here conjures up his
demonic army. This is one of six
small engravings executed after
designs by Fuseli, illustrating a
new edition of Milton’s Paradise
Lost (1667). Fuseli was all too
aware of the irony in seeing his
vast ambitions reduced to little
illustrations such as this.
Henry Fuseli
Macbeth Consulting the Vision of
the Armed Head 1793-1794
Oil on canvas, 1630 x 1300 mm
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington
Shakespeare’s Macbeth has asked
the ‘Weird Sisters’ to predict
whether he will become king. The
apparition of an helmeted head
warns, ‘Macbeth! Macbeth!
Macbeth! Beware Macduff’,
referring to his political rival. Fuseli
noted that he had made the
features of the spectral head
resemble Macbeth’s own: would
not this make a powerful
impression on your mind?
“THUNDER. FIRST APPARITION:
AN ARMED HEAD.
MACBETH. Tell me, thou unknown
powerFIRST WITCH. He knows thy
thought: Hear his speech, but say
thou nought.
FIRST APPARITION. Macbeth!
Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware
Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife.
Dismiss me. Enough.”
-William Shakespeare,
Macbeth (1606), Act 1, Scene 3
William Blake
Lear and Cordelia in Prison circa 1779
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 123 x 175 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
The ageing British king Lear lies sleeping on his daughter Cordelia’s lap while in prison. Lear’s
willfulness has split the kingdom, and Cordelia laments the fate of her father and of the nation. This is
one of a group of drawings by Blake dealing with British history made around 1779. His source for
this scene though was Nahum Tate’s reworking of Shakespeare’s King Lear (1681).
John British Dixon after Joshua Reynolds
Ugolino 1773
Mezzotint 505 x 615 mm © Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum
This print reproduces Reynolds’ painting of the imprisonment of Count Ugolino de Gherardeschi
(d.1288), from Dante’s Inferno (1319-21). Thrown into prison after a political intrigue, Ugolino was left
to starve along with two of his sons and two grandchildren. The painting represents the moment
when he hears the door being permanently sealed, and he is suddenly awakened to his dreadful fate.
He will eventually commit a horrid act of cannibalism.
John Runciman
The Three Witches circa 1767-1768
Ink and body colour on prepared laid paper, 235 x 248 mm Lent by the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
This fluently-executed design probably shows the three witches from Shakespeare’s Mabceth
(1606), clustered together in wicked conspiracy. John Runciman made a profound impression on
his contemporaries during his short life. With his brother Alexander, he was among the first artists
to treat Shakespeare as the source of heroic subjects, presenting scenes and characters freed from
the trappings of stage presentations.
Alexander Runciman
The Witches show Macbeth The
Apparitions circa 1771-1772
Pen and brown ink over pencil on paper, 616 x 460 mm
Lent by the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
The tragic Scottish king Macbeth is
subjected to the alarming sight of the
three witches casting the spells that will
conjure prophetic visions. The drawing
seems to compress the images drawn by
the famous spell of the three witches ‘Double double toil and trouble’ – with
the culminating dance around the
cauldron: ‘Like elves and fairies in a
ring’.
Henry Fuseli
The Weird Sisters or The Three Witches 1783
In one of his best-known compositions,
Fuseli presents a dramatically stylized portrayal of the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
(1606). This painting was exhibited in 1783. A critic of the time commented: ‘He draws correctly, but
his Imagination, impetuous but not full, is the most incorrect Thing imaginable!’.
Oil on canvas, 650 x 915 mm Lent by the Kunsthaus, Zürich (gift of the city of Zürich)
BANQUO. What are
these So wither'd and
so wild in their
attire,That look not like
the inhabitants o' the
earth,And yet are on't?
Live you? or are you
aught That man may
question? You seem to
understand me, By
each at once her
choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips:
you should be women,
And yet your beards
forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
-William Shakespeare,
Macbeth (1606), Act 1,
scene 3
Robert Thew after Henry Fuseli
Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus and the Ghost Published 29 September 1796
Stipple engraving on paper, 500 x 635 mm © 2006 Kunsthaus, Zürich. All rights reserved.
In a moonlit scene at the castle of Elsinor, Hamlet breaks from
his friend Horatio’s hold and thrusts himself in the direction of
the mysterious apparition of his dead father. This engraving
was one of the painter’s most admired images.
William Blake
Hamlet and his Father's Ghost 1806
Pen and grey ink, and grey wash, with watercolour 307 x
185 mm
© Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum
This represents Hamlet meeting the
ghost of his father, in the scene of
Shakespeare’s play where the
apparition tells his son the gloomy
truth about the incestuous and horrid
plots surrounding him. While Blake
painted extended series of illustrations
of Dante and Milton, he represented
subjects from Shakespeare
infrequently. When he did, his designs,
as here, tended to take on a relatively
conventional format.
James Gillray
A Phantasmagoria – Scene – Conjuring-up
an Armed Skeleton 5 January 1803
image: 279 x 245 mm
With permission of the Warden and Scholars of New College,
Oxford
The three witches from Shakespeare’s
Macbeth (1606) are shown wearing the
features of contemporary opposition
politicians, including Charles James Fox.
The print criticises the Peace of Amiens
made with France in 1802, which was
perceived as sacrificing Britain’s interests.
The feigned oval suggests that the whole
scene may be a phantasmagorical
projection of the type popular at this time.
William Blake
The House of Death 1795/circa 1805
Colour print finished in ink and watercolour on paper, 485 x 610 mm
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939 The
subject is taken from Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), Book X.
In a vision presented to Adam, Death hovers over a plague-house, dart in hand, teasing his
victims with the promise of eternal sleep but letting them suffer further.