October is the month of nightmares so now seemed a suitable moment to air this sculpture, The Nightmare (1894) by Eugène Thivier, which I’ve had bookmarked for some time. Thivier (1845–1920) seems to be one of those artists who produces a single striking work with little else in the oeuvre to match it. The subject is a familiar one, of course, a variation on the sleeper menaced by an incubus or other creature of the night. A previous October post was devoted to Fuseli’s celebrated painted version; similar pictorial examples abound but sculptures of the theme are scarce. Thivier’s work is in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse. Wikimedia Commons has a few more photos of the poor woman and her nocturnal tormentor.
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Previously on { feuilleton }
• Fuseli’s Nightmare