gothic nightmares: fuseli. blake and the romantic imagination

Henry Fuseh, 'The Nightmare', 17S2, oil on canvas, WI.6x 126.7 cm. Detroit Institute of Arts
Henry Fuseli, 'The Oath on the Riitli', 1725, oil on
canvas, 267 x 178 cm. Kwishaus, Zurich
GOTHIC NIGHTMARES: FUSELI. BLAKE
AND THE ROMANTIC IMAGINATION
Tate Britain, London, 15 February - 1 May, 2006,
"HE air crackles with sexual
energ>',' proclaimed an advcrrisemcnr for the Ruyal Ballet
production of Romeo and Juliet.
Interestingly, the illustration used
in the advertisement was an exact
mirmr-image ofthe painting chosen
for the poster ofthe "Gothic Nightmares" exhibition which opened
in London at the same time. The
images are two sides ofthe same
T!
Henry Fuseli, 'The Night-hag Visiting
Lapland Witches or Lapland Orgies',
c. 1794-6, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 126.4
cm. Metropolitan Musetmi of Art, .\'Y
neo-Gothic art movement, literature and architecture, not to mention the imminent emergence of
the psychoanalytic and psychotherapy professions, horror films, trash
literature and even Surrealist painters and poets, all of whom benefited from Fuseli's disturbing flights
of fancy. It is no surprise that Sigmund Freud is said to have had a
prim of The Nightmare hanging in
his consulting rooms.
theatrical coin, although two and
a quarter centuries apart.
The painting in question is Henry
Fuseli's The Nightmare, an amazing iconic work which was one of
the best known (one can hardly
say loved) paintings of its time. Its
subject could well be a bad dream
Although this is a large exhibition,
but it turned into a PR dream gift- comprising over 150 works by many
horse for Swiss-born Fuseli, the
artists, it could almost be seen as
artist, his print dealer, much of the a one-man (Fuseli) show; indeed
James Northcote, 'Portrait of Henry William Blake, 'The Ghost of a Flea \
FuseW, c. 1778, oil on canvas, 77.8 xc. 1819-20, tempera and gold on panel,
64.5 cm. National Portrait Gallery, 21.4 X 16.2 cm. Tate. Bequeathed by
London
W. Graham Rt^ertson, 1949
Craft Arts International No. 67, 2006
almost a one-painting shovf. Of
the many technical and theatrical
tour deforce pictures by Fuse\i The
Weird Sisters or The Tliree Witches,
Queen Katherine 's Dream, and
Titania and Bottom with the Ass's
Head most benefited from the contextualising format in which this
crowded exhibition was hung.
I particularly enjoyed Fuseli's
Shakespearean themes, especially
the Midsummer Night's Dream
paintings. How appropriate that
Shakespeare in that play wrote that
iovers and madmen have such
seething brains such shaping fancies than cool reason ever comprehend'. This is surely the secret
behind the continuing appeal of
these weird, extravagant and often
quite horrid paintings.
Here the catalogue added to our
appreciation by providing excellent
references to key academic writings. Although considering the use
ofthe term "Gothic" in the show's
title, I should have appreciated
more on the development ofthe
William Blake, 'The Punishment of the Thieves', 1824, chalk, pen and ink, and watercolour on paper, 37.2 x 52.7 em
Gothic novel, which has been so
powerful men, lost inheritances
influential on the borror mongers
and identities, usually played out
of 20th-cemury cinema and teleagainst eerie background sounds
vision, pulp fiction and perhaps
of creaking doors and moaning
even on some comedy shows, sucb
wind. Indeed, where would Hollyas Monty Pj'thon.
wood and Hitchcock have been
Many of tbe elements of tbe classic
without the Gothic novel?
19th-century popular Gothic novel
Fuseli's The Nightmare has been
appear in the subject matter of
open to almost the same amount
tbe various artworks on show at the
of theorising and interpretation
Tate. These literary themes and
as Leonardo's Mona Lisa, not the
narrative devices include sucb
least challenging question being
standard issue recipes of mystery
the identity of the nubile woman
and imagination tales as settings
so languidly draped across her bed,
in castles and abbeys, mysterious
head banging down, swan neck
prophecies, portents and visions,
vulnerably exposed, lips slightly
lights burning in derelict bouses
parted, eyes tightly closed. Some
or locked rooms, attractive females
threatened by tyrannical ogres or
Henry Fuseli, 'MadKate', c. 1806-7,
oil on canvas, 91 x 71 cm. Frankfurter Henry Fuseli, ''The Incubus Leaving Two Sleeping Women', IHIO, pencil, wash
Gaethe-Museum, Frankfurt ant Main and vMtcrcolour on paper. 31.5 x 40.8 cm. Kunsthaus, Zurich
Craft Arts Internationa! No. 67, 2006
William Blake, 'House of Death',
1795/1805, colour print zvith ink and
watercolour, 48.5 x 61 cm. Tate. Gift
by W. Graham Robertson. 1939
89
Henry Fuseli, 'Fairy Mab', c. 1815-20, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm. Folger
Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC
John Runeiman, 'The Three Witches', c. 1767-8, ink and body
colour oji paper, 23.5 x 24.8 em. National Gallery of Scotland
have speculated tbat she is Anna
Landoldt, a woman with whom
Fuseli was said to be deeply in love
and whose marriage proposal was
rejected by ber father That then
gives rise to an identification of the
Henry Fuseli, 'Tiiajiia and Bottom
with the Ass's Head', e. 1788-9, first
exhibited Shakespeare Gallery 1789,
oil on canvas, 216 x 274 em. late
90
Henry Fuseli, 'The Weird Sisters or The Three Witches', exh. RA 1783, oil
on cannas, 65 x 91.5 cm. Kunsthaus, Zurich. Gift ofthe City of Zurich
William Blake, 'The Blasphemer', c. 1800, pen and
watercolour on paper, 38.4 x 34 cm. Tate
evil-looking hobgoblin squatting
heavily on her nightgown-clad loins
as a hideous gesture of possession
denied. The malevolent incubus
focuses its horrid attention on us
and viewers are torn between moving hastily past or risking its mesmerising gaze.
Some have seen the young woman
as breathing her last; others have
seen some sense of libidinous satisfaction from ber pose; and other
commentators bave regarded tbe
departing snorting horse as symbolising ber lost virginity. There
will never be one single reading,
and even if Fuseli, who wrote on
a wide range of topics, had given
us a semiotic analysis of his most
famous work, we wouldn't neces-
sarily read it in the same way today.
When first exhibited at tbe Royal
Academy in 1782, tbe painting was
an immediate scandal and success,
even provoking stimulating discussion as to whether or not Fuseli's
weird nightmarish imagination was
caused by dining on undercooked
pork late at night.
From a historical perspective, one
ofthe most interesting aspects of
the painting and its siblings is the
way it stands in some claustrophobic no-man's-land between Fuseli's
Neo-Classicism and tbe witch and
goblin-ridden world of Romanticism and the fugitive world of the
so-called Gothic encountered in
tbe extreme novels of the style sent
up so elegantly by Jane Austen in
Northanger Abbey (1797-1803).
As is becoming tbe norm nowadaj'S, tbe exhibition is accompanied
by a major catalogue publication
and its several contributors provide
academically doughty essays on
Fuseli, Blake and tbeir times. In
the essays we are reminded that
Henry Fuseli, 'Titania Awakening',
c. 1789-91, first exhibited Shakespeare
Gallery 1791, oil on canvas, 222 x
280 em. Kunstmuseum, Wintherthur
Craft Arts Intemational No. 67, 2006
William Blake, 'The Good and Evil Angels \ c.1795, colour print finished in William Blake, 'Hecate', c.1775, colour print finished in pen and ink aud
zvatercokmr, 43.9 x 58.1 cm. Tate. Presented by W. Graham Rcybertson 1939
ink and watercolour, 44.5 x 59.4 cm. Tate. Presented by W. Grahatn Robertson
the air in lare 18th-century F-urope which espoused revolution and rad- much to enjoy.
realms of porn. Fuseli's drawings
was not just crackling with sexual icalism led to the extremes seen
Fuseli's drawings in particular have of consensual activities hetween
energy, but also with revolutionary in the Tate exhihition. Yet despite always impressed me with their
two or three naked women and
politics and ideas with consequent all the melodramatic attitudes and toneless minimalism. At times they one rather shattered-looking man
social, religious, artistic and intel- happy vulgarity on view, there is
verge on the cruelty of despair
trip heyond the sensual into the
lectual upheavals. Fear was in the
which is cluttering up the imagery
air in England at the time of the
of what are far from adult mateFrench Revolution and the Napolrial on global websites of today.
eonic wars; fear not only of the
Some works remind us that human
spread of revolutionary ideas and
figures depicted in apparent states
sectarian strife hut total disintegraof pleasure can also experience
tion of the elegant world of Georpain and violence.
gian England.
Out of the 18th-century Enlightenment and the pursuit of freedom
This extraordinary collection of
comes a reminder that the boundsupercharged itnagery includes
aries of personal liberty and libersatirical cartoons by James Gilray,
tinism are as fluid as Fuseli and
the subjects of which could lead
Blake's expressive lines, and that
the viewer to make comparisons
the frisson of transgression often
with our own times. Familiar stohas its own appeal.
ries of corruption in high places,
In addition to the large number
fearful religious hatreds and prejof works by Fuseli and Blake, sigudices parading as worthy beliefs,
nificant paintings and drawings
the mocking of royalty, the court
hy George Romney, Theodor Von
and unpopular government heavies
Hoist and several lesser-known
are all there. The end ofthe world
artists such as Thomas Robinson
was undoubtedly seen by many as
and Richard Newton, add to the
being nigh. Millenarianism came
profusion of witches, apparitions,
early to Europe with a distinct feelheroics and downright silly scenes.
ing from the 1780s onwards that
there would be an apocalypse if
not now, then very soon.
But the later minor artists ofthe
Gothic "Gloomth" as it was popularly known, and great artists Hke
Blake or Fuseli, may have made
metaphoric references to current
events but the subjects which they
painted mostly were drawn from
those "Desert Island Discs" essentials - the Bible and Shakespeare
as well as John Milton and Dante,
Henry Fuseh, 'The Changeling', 1780, black cliui:.. ^.^j. ,_^.,, .,.,„• ..
heightened with white, on paper, 48 x 53.5 cm. Kunsthaus,
Zurich
Blake's seminal influence cannot
he overemphasised and the show
is weil provided with several key
works by the great visionary. Ofthe
25 Blakes on show I particularly
enjoyed The Good and Evil Angels,
the didactic Hecate and the ubiquitous Ghost of a flea.
It is hardly surprising that an age
William Blake, 'T^tUence: The Death
ofthe First-Born', c. 1805, pen and
zuatercolour on paper, 30.4 x 34.2 cm.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Craft Ans Intemational No, 67, 2006
'You're scary,' blurted my small
grandson when I wore my Aussie
sunglasses on a rare English hright
day,,, following it up with 'and I
like being scared.' The now unread
Hugh Walpole, Mrs Ann Radcliffe
and the other writers of 18th-century popular Gothic novels knew
the power of arousing terror and
curiosity by apparendy supernatural events that later turned out to
have simple, rational explanations.
And to emphasise the appeal of
the scary, the Tate, ever mindful of
its attendance figures and a 'catch
them early philosophy', provided
a delightful and well-supervised
little area for the toddlers which
included a very gentle "scary area".
I felt very privileged to be invited
to step inside. Sadly, I didn't fmd
it at all scary. Such is the corruption of years of adult exposure to
the arts, the media and the worldwide web.
Neville Weston
91