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 FuseliThe Nightmare exhibited 1782Oil 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 BlakePlate 33 from Jerusalem (copy 'A'), printed around 1820Relief 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 1770-1771Pen and ink on paper, 150 x 222 mmLent 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 CoswayPrometheus circa 1785-1800Pen and brown ink on paper, 225 x184 mmPrint Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Thomas BanksThe Falling Titan 1786Marble 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 BlakeThe Punishment of The Thieves 1824-7Chalk, 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 HolstFrontispiece to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein published by Colburn and Bentley, London 1831Steel engraving in book 93 x 71 mmPrivate 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 FuseliThe Witches Show Macbeth the Descendants of Banquo (Die Hexen zeigen Macbeth Banquos Nachkommen) 1773/1779Pen 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 FuseliBuoncante da Montefeltro circa 1774-1778Pen 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 FuseliSatan Starting from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear (Satan flieht, von Ithuriels Speer beruht) 1779Oil on canvas, 2305 x 2763 mm

Milton’s Satan, represented here as a heroically-proportioned 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 SpearTouch’d lightly; for no falsehood can endureTouch of Celestial temper, but returnsOf force to its own likeness: up he startsDiscoverd and surpriz’d. As when a sparkLights on a heap of nitrous Powder, laidFit for the Tun some Magazin to storeAgainst a rumord Warr, the Smuttie graineWith 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 BarrySatan and his Legions Hurling Defiance Toward The Vault of Heaven circa 1792-1794Etching,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 FuseliSatan Summoning his Legions, engraved illustration to John Milton, Paradise Lost published by F.I. du Roveray 1802Engraving in a bound volume 114 x 88 mmPrivate 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 FuseliMacbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head 1793-1794Oil on canvas, 1630 x 1300 mmFolger 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 power-FIRST 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 BlakeLear and Cordelia in Prison circa 1779Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 123 x 175 mmBequeathed 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 ReynoldsUgolino 1773Mezzotint 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 RuncimanThe Three Witches circa 1767-1768Ink 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 RuncimanThe Witches show Macbeth The Apparitions circa 1771-1772Pen and brown ink over pencil on paper, 616 x 460 mmLent 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 FuseliThe Weird Sisters or The Three Witches 1783

Oil on canvas, 650 x 915 mm Lent by the Kunsthaus, Zürich (gift of the city of Zürich) 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!’.

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 FuseliHamlet, Horatio, Marcellus and the Ghost Published 29 September 1796Stipple 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 BlakeHamlet and his Father's Ghost 1806Pen 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 GillrayA Phantasmagoria – Scene – Conjuring-up an Armed Skeleton 5 January 1803image: 279 x 245 mmWith 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 BlakeThe House of Death 1795/circa 1805Colour 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.