The Incubus Leaving Two Young Women

The IncubusDemon in male form that seeks to have sexual intercourse with a sleeping woman. Leaving Two Young Women is an oil painting by the Swiss-born British Romantic artist Henry Fuseli
Swiss-born British Romantic artist (1741–1825), who established a reputation for his paintings depicting the horrifying and fantastic., probably completed in about 1794. Like much of his work it explores the relationship between sex and fear, and can be seen as a counterpart to his earlier masterpiece The Nightmare,
Oil painting by Henry Fuseli, depicting an ape-like incubus crouching on a sleeping woman, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782. exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1782.^[1]

Many have speculated that the sleeping woman depicts Anna Landolt, the niece of Fuseli’s friend the Swiss physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater,^[1] and that the incubus may be a representation of Fuseli himself.^[2]

Fuseli had fallen wildly in love with Anna, and his rejection appears to have resulted in a lasting bitterness.^[1] He wrote of his fantasies about Anna to Lavater in 1779:^[3]

Description

In contrast to The Nightmare, which depicts the moment of assault, The Incubus shows the disoriented and anguished victim waking up, and the incubus fleeing on horseback through the window at the top left. Lying beside her is a resting female companion who has slept peacefully throughout the encounter.^[1]

Provenance

The painting may have been acquired from the artist by Theodor Falckeysen of Basel in 1794. After having been in the hands of a private collector since the late 19th century, it was sold at auction at Christie’s in London for $3.5 million in 2021.^[1]