Art is the Solution

The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth Source: Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) I love drama in art. That’s why I find myself drawn time and time again to the art of Henry Fuseli. His work is extreme and theatrical, capturing moments of horror, pain, and intense human emotion on the canvas. Although his work encompassed a variety of topics, his most memorable pieces touch on the liminal space between ordinary life and the world of supernatural horrors. Simply put, Fuseli’s art revels in the weird and dramatic. The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth is a particularly spooky (perfect for Halloween) example of Fuseli’s dark and dramatic art. The painting depicts a key moment from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Here, we see Lady Macbeth—having previously killed the king—bemoaning her guilt as she sleepwalks through the castle. While asleep, she tries obsessively to wash her hands convinced that they are stained by blood. A doctor and attendent in the background look on in surprise, puzzled by her strange behavi...

Thor Battling the Midgard Serpent Source: Wikimedia Commons Throughout history, many artists have set out to create shocking or dramatic scenes. However, few of them achieve this goal as successfully as Swiss artist Henry Fuseli. In fact, drama is the bread and butter of Fuseli’s oeuvre. His work is extreme and theatrical, capturing moments of horror, pain, and intense human emotion on his canvas. His work is most closely aligned with the Romantic movement, which drew its inspiration from emotion and individualism. Thus, it’s unsurprising that his work is steeped in melodrama (which is one of my favorite things in art). Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent is one of Fuseli’s most memorable paintings. Created as his diploma piece for entrance to the Royal Academy, the piece depicts a story from Norse mythology. Here, we see the Norse god Thor doing battle with the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr. According to legend, Jörmungandr—one of Loki’s children—encircled the whole world. In one tale...

The Changeling Source: Art Institute of Chicago  Swiss artist Henry Fuseli can best be described as a painter of horror. Although his work encompassed a variety of topics, his most memorable pieces touch on the liminal space between ordinary life and the world of supernatural horrors. Fuseli’s art revels in the weird and dramatic, and The Changeling certainly fits that description. The drawing depicts a common piece of European folklore: the changeling. According to legend, a changeling is a fairy child who is left in place of a human infant. The Changeling depicts one such moment of exchange. Here, we can see two women kneeling over a crib containing a fairy child. Their faces betray their horror as they realize that their charge has been abducted. In the background, a fairy can be seen flying out the window with the human child in tow. The entirety of this simple story is rendered in monochrome gray wash and graphite. It is direct and to the point, but powerful. In my opinion, ...

The Nightmare Source: Wikimedia Commons As spooky season continues, I want to share with you a painting that both fascinated and horrified eighteenth and nineteenth century viewers: Henry Fuseli’s masterpiece The Nightmare . Although much of his work tends to be moralizing, Fuseli was a painter who reveled in the weird and dramatic. Fuseli was often inspired by plays and other literature, giving many of his paintings a theatrical air. His work tended to be dark and color and peopled with dramatic figures in moments of physical or psychological crisis. The Nightmare , his most famous painting, is no exception. Although, it is unique in that it doesn’t present a clear message or moral. The piece portrays a woman in a white nightgown sprawled asleep on a bed. A squat, grimacing demon sits on her chest, while, behind the bed, a black horse pushes its head into the scene. Traditionally, the scene is interpreted as a literal depiction of the young woman’s nightmare, with the demon representi...

Macbeth, Banquo, and the Witches Source: National Trust Swiss artist Henry Fuseli can best be described as a painter of horror. Although his work encompassed a variety of topics, his most memorable pieces touch on the liminal space between ordinary life and the world of supernatural horrors. His work explores the dark places in the human psyche, exploring the turbulent landscape of the mind in dark and gory detail. His paintings draw their power from Fuseli’s expert understanding of visual drama. In fact, His masterpiece, The Nightmare , is one of the most quintessential images of the Romantic age, an artistic movement that drew its inspiration from emotion and individualism. Given this source of inspiration, it’s unsurprising that some Romantic painters turned to the work of Shakespeare for subject matter. Shakespeare’s Macbeth —full of darkness and drama—was prime material for Romantic artists. Fuseli himself returned to Macbeth several times throughout his career; one of the ...

Romeo stabs Paris at the bier of Juliet Source: Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Collection I’ve written before about my deep affection for the work of Henry Fuseli. His work is most closely aligned with the Romantic movement, which drew its inspiration from emotion and individualism. Thus, it’s unsurprising that his work is steeped in melodrama (which I always find appealing). Fuseli often drew his subjects from the work of Shakespeare, which, naturally, is an excellent source of dramatic content. This painting—entitled Romeo stabs Paris at the bier of Juliet —is modeled on one of the final scenes of Romeo and Juliet , in which Romeo murders Paris before killing himself. As I noted above, dramatic is the perfect word to describe this painting. In fact, Fuseli often based his paintings on theatrical performances, so his paintings are dramatic in quite a literal sense. Here, Fuseli employs a loose, expressive style and stark contrast to capture the dark and tragic story of R...

Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers Source: Tate Museum Swiss artist Henry Fuseli can best be described as a painter of horror. Although his work encompassed a variety of topics, his most memorable pieces touch on the liminal space between ordinary life and the world of supernatural horrors. His work explores the dark places in the human psyche, exploring the turbulent landscape of the mind in dark and gory detail. His paintings draw their power from Fuseli’s expert understanding of visual drama. In fact, his masterpiece, The Nightmare , is one of the most quintessential images of the Romantic movement, an artistic movement that drew its inspiration from emotion and individualism. This painting, entitled Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers , is a particularly striking and evocative example of Fuseli’s work. The piece depicts the scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth in which Macbeth encounters Lady Macbeth after murdering Duncan. Lady Macbeth demands that her husband, who is horrified by w...

Spirit of the Dead Watching Source: Wikipedia Today, I want to turn my attention back to the work of Paul Gauguin to talk about his painting Spirit of the Dead Watching . There are a lot of different interpretations of this work, as you’ll find if you Google it. Many people interpret this painting through the lens of colonialism, racism, and sexism. I think those interpretations are important and valid, and there’s some good information about them here . However, today I’m going to talk about the way that I read the painting. As I’ve said before, Gauguin was clearly inspired by the Romantic movement, especially its emphasis on the emotional and spiritual life The Nightmare Source: Wikipedia of the individual. By the time Gauguin was active as an artist, the idea of psychoanalysis — developed by the famous Sigmund Freud — was emerging into mainstream thought. In my opinion, the figure in the background (the so-called “Spirit of the Dead”) is a representation o...