La Cochemar 1770 - 1818

"La Cochemar" (The Nightmare) is an 18th-century engraving by Carl David Probsthayn depicting a woman asleep in a bed while a demonic figure sits atop her chest. The scene is set in a bedroom with an open window revealing a stormy sky, emphasizing the nightmarish nature of the subject. The detailed rendering of the woman’s body and the demonic figure’s grotesque features adds to the unsettling mood of the artwork, which was likely inspired by the popular Gothic genre. The print, now housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Denmark, is a powerful example of how artists explored themes of fear, anxiety, and the supernatural in the late 18th century.