Demonic painter: Fussli, the mad Swiss

It is impossible to look away. In the depths of darkness, an unconscious young woman lies on a bed, her complexion as pale as her silk dress, her head and arms thrown back in a state of vulnerability. Perched heavily on her stomach is a stocky creature with pointed ears, its bulging eyes fixed on us with an unsettling intensity. The dark shadow of its demonic form looms over a scarlet curtain, from which an improbable spectral horse emerges, its wild gaze and bristling mane adding to the eerie atmosphere. Below this haunting scene rests the title: The Nightmare .When this painting was unveiled to the refined society of London in 1782, amidst the typical portraits and pastoral landscapes of British art, it elicited astonishment. "Shocking!" exclaimed the novelist Horace Walpole. Sensitive viewers were advised to approach with caution. Whispers circulated about its creator, rumored to indulge in rotten pork and drugs to fuel his imagination—he was known as "the mad Swiss." Unraveling the Enigma To decode this pictorial enigma, some have drawn an etymological connection between the English word "mare" and "nightmare." However, "mare" here more accurately refers to the Mara, a malevolent spirit from Nordic folklore that torments sleepers by sitting on their chests.
Others interpret this unsettling beauty as a representation of a horrific scene of violation.As we know, The Nightmare has become an icon in art history, referenced, parodied, and caricatured since the late 18th century, when it was already widely disseminated through engravings.
Even a century and a half later, it found a place in Sigmund Freud's office. This work is remarkable for being both a quintessential product of its time and a universal image that taps into our ancestral fears, while also expressing the complex fantasies of a singular individual: Johann Heinrich Füssli. This paradoxical genius, whose oeuvre remains relatively obscure in France, produced not only The Nightmare but also a wealth of strange and unclassifiable masterpieces. His journey from Switzerland to the United Kingdom is unique, marked by a continual tension between conformity and subversion. www.vwart.com