Witch Riding a Bat (1916)
by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (Australia, 1888-1960)

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was an Australian illustrator of children's books, whose work mostly depicted magical creatures such as elves and fairies. Well before modern fairy-tale iterations saw Frozen's Anna and Elsa crowned as unexpected feminist icons, she was celebrating the power of the feminine in subtle ways. The drawings are often emotionally quite intense, depicting a fairy or a feminine child floating above a rocky landscape or scary deep sea, without fear.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Flight of Fancy... Off for the Sabbot (1927)
by William Mortensen (United States, 1897-1965)

In a roll call of the pioneers of modern photography, one name is never invoked. From the late 1920s to the 1950s, William Mortensen was one of the most famous and celebrated photographers in America. However, his subject matter – which veered towards the savage, indecorous, gothic and grotesque – as well as his use of montage and illustration, made him a pariah among the puritanical new guard in photography, led by Ansel Adams, who tried to write him out of history, and even called him "The Antichrist". 

Mortensen’s methods often made it hard to distinguish whether the results were photographs or not. He used traditional printmaking techniques, such as bromoiling, and developed many of his own. He would create composite images, scratch, scrape and draw on his prints, then apply a texture that made them look like etchings, thereby disguising his manipulations. Consequently, every print was unique. Ultimately, Mortensen’s aim was to create something that, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be a photograph, yet portrayed scenes so fantastic they caused wonder and astonishment in the viewer.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Safo (1881)
by Miguel Carbonell Selva (Spain, 1854-1896)

In a painting that goes by the title Safo, we see the figure of Sappho at the moment when she is about to leap to her death, plunging into the sea from the heights of Leukas.

Sappho was a famous Greek poet from the island of Lesbos who lived from c. 630 – c. 570 BC. She is sometimes called the ‘Tenth Muse’ because her abilities to play music and write poetry were legendary. An intriguing story about her death has been circulating for millennia, yet there is no evidence as to its veracity. The story holds that Sappho threw herself off the cliffs of the Greek island Leucadia because of her love for Phaon, a ferryman.

Some scholars believe that Sappho was a lesbian and many of Sappho’s poems can be interpreted as homoerotic. Indeed, the adjective ‘sapphic’ can refer to a certain type of lyric poetry or to lesbianism (ie: a sapphic relationship).

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

La Femme Chauve-Souris [The Bat Woman] (1890)
Albert Joseph Pénot (France, 1862-1930)

Albert Joseph Pénot was a French painter known for female nudes and landscapes. Today, he is more popularly and specifically recognized for a subset of paintings centering on women of darker, more macabre themes.

Pénot was concerned first and foremost with anatomically accurate portrayals of women. Singular female forms were the implicit focus of his work, whereas the worlds surrounding his characters are seldom realized beyond misty atmospheres and patches of shadow and light. Environments are incidental and are typically shrouded in haze, giving the figures themselves explicit priority.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

"The Castle Rising Sisters" (a.k.a. "Welsh Witches' Tea Party")
Photograph by Unknown (England)

This photograph is commonly titled "Welsh Witches' Tea Party", but the subjects are not witches, nor are they Welsh. They are posed at Trinity Hospital, Castle Rising in Northampton, England. Trinity Hospital, Castle Rising was an Almshouse Charity, a place for unmarried (or widowed) poor women over age 56 to live.

The original requirements (circa 1600) were: “They must be of honest life and conversation, religious, grave and discreet, able to read, if such a one be had, a single woman, her place to be void on marriage, to be of 56 years at least, no common beggar, harlot, scold, drunkard, haunter of taverns, inns and alehouses.”

Residents of Trinity Hospital were asked to go to prayers three times each day to say the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed and a prayer ordered by the Founder for himself and his noble family.

Fast-forward to the present day and the criteria of this almshouse charity is not quite as strict. The only qualifying requirement is for single women from parishes of Castle Rising, North Wootton, and Roydon who are in reduced financial circumstances. There’s no dress code these days either, yet the residents take great pride in dressing in the “uniform” (such as in the picture) provided by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton for special occasions such as Founder’s Day.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

The Destruction of Leviathan (1866)
Engraving by Gustave Doré (France, 1832-1883)

Destruction of Leviathan is based on the Biblical story of Leviathan referenced in the book of Job. Leviathan is described as a giant fire-breathing serpent so terrifying that just the sight of it would drive men insane. The Book of Isaiah later says that on Judgement day, God will slay the serpent. 

The serpent's face likely modeled on depictions of the great Midgard Serpent in Norse tales, and the battle scene itself was based on the Rig Veda, where Indra kills Vritra (the first born of dragons), with a thunderbolt. 

The Destruction of Leviathan represents the abolishment of darkness and insanity. In this work, Gustave uses his depiction of the creature to show the resemblances to terrible creatures described in other various religions to showcase his personal unification philosophy. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Hypnosis (1904)
by Sascha Schneider (Germany, 1870-1927)

Sascha Schneider created various paintings and lithographs of naked men that helped transform the eroticized male into an ubiquitous public image for a brief moment in Germany's history. Schneider operated during an unusual period of German history known as the Health and Hygiene Movement, or Freikörperkultur. Seen as a response to the booming industrialization of the 18th and 19th centuries, the movement advocated for a return to traditional exercise and healthy living pursuits, involving a plethora of natural efforts and, among other things, nudity.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

"The Vampire Queen" [Marie Schleinzer in Bat Costume] (1896)
Photograph by Atelier Adele Studio (Austria, 1862-1905)

Austrian stage actress Marie Schleinzer in costume for the ballet “Around Vienna” ("Rund um Wien"). In it, Schleinzer plays the allegorical force of evil. This is one of a series of photographs published in the Austrian photographic journal Photographische Correspondenz. 

The photography studio was owned by Adele Perlmutter-Heilperin and her two brothers, Max and William Perlmutter, who founded Atelier Adele in 1862. Adele was the first and only female "k.u.k. Hofphotograph" of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in Vienna and was famous for her ability to photograph women.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

"Chiroptera" [Vampire Bats] (1904)
plate 67 from Kunstformen der Natur by Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German zoologist and naturalist who described and named thousands of new species and created many terms used today in biology. His work of over one hundred illustrations of animals and sea creatures, Kunstformen der Natur ("Art forms in Nature"), would go on to influence the Art Nouveau artistic movement. 

This plate Chiroptera depicts the unique facial structures of various species of leaf-nosed bats, the family of bats which includes vampire bats. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Selene (1880)
by Albert Aublet (France, 1841-1938)

Albert Aublet’s brilliant ability to draw upon a wide array of sources to inform his compositions is evident in the remarkable present work--centered on a pale-skinned model floating through a clouded sky, dappled with fading stars, above a landscape of purple mountains and ice-blue waters. 

Aublet’s Selene appears to be at the end of her nightly journey, her back arched, legs and arms wrapped around the slight silhouette of the moon, the sky brightening with the pink hues of the oncoming dawn (brought by her brother Helios). 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Mother Mushroom and her Children (1900)
by Edward Okuń (Poland, 1872-1945)

Edward Okuń was a painter, draughtsman and illustrator, representative of the Symbolist movement in the art of the Young Poland period. He was known to paint fantasy scenes based on places he traveled. Mother Mushroom and her Children is an illustration of a young mother looking wearily at her mushroom children. The illustration was originally published with the title, "Where the Beeches Dawn" in the influential German art magazine Jugend. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Fairy Riding a Bat (1921)
by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (Australia, 1888-1960)

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was an Australian illustrator of children's books, whose work mostly depicted magical creatures such as elves and fairies. Well before modern fairy-tale iterations saw Frozen's Anna and Elsa crowned as unexpected feminist icons, she was celebrating the power of the feminine in subtle ways.  The drawings are often emotionally quite intense, depicting a fairy or a feminine child floating above a rocky landscape or scary deep sea, without fear. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Frog (1814)
by Matsumoto Hoji (Japan, active 1770-1815)

This simple yet amusing print by the Japanese artist Hoji is a woodblock print from "Meika Gafu", 1814, and shows the sad-faced frog in black ink beneath red calligraphy. Toads and frogs were common motifs in "Zenga" or "Zen pictures" during the Japanese Edo period, as Zen monks considered them to be creatures free from the distraction of the mundane world and representing a pure and natural life. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Portrait of Maud Wagner (1907)

Maud Stevens Wagner (née Stevens; February 12, 1877 – January 30, 1961) was an American circus performer. She was the first known female tattoo artist in the United States. Wagner was an aerialist and contortionist, working in numerous traveling circuses. She met Gus Wagner—a tattoo artist who described himself as "the most artistically marked up man in America" while traveling with circuses and sideshows—at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair) in 1904, where she was working as an aerialist. She exchanged a romantic date with him for a lesson in tattooing, and several years later they were married. 

After leaving the circus, Maud and Gus Wagner traveled around the United States, working both as tattoo artists and "tattooed attractions" in vaudeville houses, county fairs and amusement arcades. They are credited with bringing tattoo artistry inland, away from the coastal cities and towns where the practice had started.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Hylas and the Nymphs (1896) 
by John William Waterhouse (England, 1849-1917)

The painting depicts a moment from the Greek and Roman legend of the tragic youth Hylas, based on accounts by Ovid and other ancient writers, in which the enraptured Hylas is abducted by Naiads (female water nymphs) while seeking drinking water.

Hylas, a male youth in classical garb, wearing a blue tunic with a red sash, and bearing a wide-necked water jar. He is bending down beside a pond in a glade of lush green foliage, reaching out towards seven young women, the water nymphs, who are emerging from the pond among the leaves and flowers of Nymphaeaceae (water lilies), including an early depiction of the yellow waterlily, Nuphar lutea. The nymphs are naked, their alabaster skin luminous in the dark but clear water, with yellow and white flowers in their auburn hair. They have very similar physical features, perhaps based on just two models.

Hylas is being enticed to enter the water, from which he will not return. One of the nymphs holds his wrist and elbow, a second plucks at his tunic, and a third holds out some pearls in the palm of her hand. The face of Hylas in profile is shadowed and barely visible, but the faces of the nymphs are clearly visible as they gaze upon him. The scene is depicted from a slightly elevated position, looking down at the water like Hylas, so no sky is visible. Hylas's position forces the viewer's focus onto the nymphs in the water and the lack of reference to his relationship with Hercules emphasizes that the narrative of the painting is not about Hylas's experiences, but about the sinister nature of the nymphs.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead (1495-1505)
Woven in South Netherlands by unknown artisans

The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead is the final panel in a series of tapestries showing pagan and Christian symbolism. The pagan themes emphasize the medieval lore of beguiled lovers, whereas Christian writings interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ. The unicorn has long been identified by Christian writers as a symbol of Christ, conscripting the traditionally pagan symbolism of the unicorn. The original pagan myths about The Hunt of the Unicorn refer to an animal with a single horn that can only be tamed by a virgin; Christian scholars translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary.

In the Gothic tapestry, the makers considered biblical events as historical, and linked the biblical and secular narratives in the tapestry weaving. Medieval art illustrated moral principles, and the tapestries used narrative allegories to illustrate these morals. The secular unicorn hunt was not simply Christian art, but also an allegorical representation of the Annunciation.

Acknowledging speculation that the tapestries were commissioned to celebrate a marriage, it is noted that medieval poets connected the taming of the unicorn to the devotion and subjugation of love. The taming of the unicorn symbolizes the secular lover or mate who was enchained by a virgin and entrapped in the fence (in the tapestry The Unicorn in Captivity). In addition, the author pointed out that the concept of an overlapping God of Heaven and God of love was accepted in the late Middle Ages.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

1927 Solar Eclipse Photograph (1927)
by Sir Frank Dyson, Astronomer
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, UK

June 1927 saw Britain in the grip of eclipse fever. A total eclipse of the sun, the first to be visible in Britain for more than 200 years, was predicted for 29 June. The path of totality ran across North Wales and Central England, from Criccieth in North Wales to Hartlepool on the east coast. 

This photograph, taken by Astronomer Royal Sir Frank Dyson of the eclipse, is an excellent example of early astronomy photography and makes a great minimalist wall art piece.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Kraft und List [Power and Cunning], (1880)
Josef Arpád Koppay (Hungary, 1859-1927)

Baron József Árpád Koppay von Drétoma was an Austro-Hungarian portrait painter. This work, Kraft und List depicts a lion (strength) with a chain around its neck. Leaning against it is a dark-eyed, winged woman (cunning). Presumably she holds the other end of the lion's chain. Interestingly, this drawing is a variation of one of his earlier works, The Strong and the Weak. In the original painting, there was no cemetery, and the woman did not have wings. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

"Circle of Women Dancing"
by Unknown

This captivating vintage black and white photograph depicts young women dancing in a circle outdoors, possibly as part of a May Day (Beltane) festival. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Départ pour le Sabbat [Departure for the Sabbath] (1910)
by Albert Joseph Pénot (France, 1862-1930)

Albert Joseph Pénot (28 February 1862 – 16 October 1930) was a French painter known for female nudes and landscapes. Today, he is more popularly and specifically recognized for a subset of paintings centering on women of darker, more macabre themes.

Pénot was concerned first and foremost with anatomically accurate portrayals of women. Singular female forms were the implicit focus of his work, whereas the worlds surrounding his characters are seldom realized beyond misty atmospheres and patches of shadow and light. Environments are incidental and are typically shrouded in haze, giving the figures themselves explicit priority.

 Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

The German Tango (Lady Dances with Death) (1916)
by Louis Raemaekers

Death is a pitiless partner: when called to the dance, it claims eternal possession. This is a merciless verdict of the symbolic cartoon “German Tango” by the Dutch painter Louis Raemaekers. The painter delivered about 1,000 works on World War I and is one of the most prominent cartoonists of this war who largely contributed to the anti-German war propaganda. The persuasive, symbolic, straightforward, courageous, shocking and grotesque works of Raemaekers even after 100 years continue to mesmerize the viewers.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Boreas (1903)
by John William Waterhouse (England, 1849-1917)

 Boreas is the name of the Greek god of the north wind and depicts a young woman buffeted by the wind. Originally an oil painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style created in 1903, this reproduction poster still maintains the beautiful details of the original.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

The Nightmare (1781)
by Henry Fuseli (Switzerland, 1741-1825)

The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by Swiss artist Henry Fuseli. It shows a woman in deep sleep with her arms thrown below her, and with a demonic and apelike incubus crouched on her chest.

The painting's dreamlike and haunting erotic evocation of infatuation and obsession was a huge popular success.

For contemporary viewers, The Nightmare invoked the relationship of the incubus and the horse (mare) to nightmares. The work was likely inspired by the waking dreams experienced by Fuseli and his contemporaries, who found that these experiences related to folkloric beliefs like the Germanic tales about demons and witches that possessed people who slept alone. In these stories, men were visited by horses or hags, giving rise to the terms "hag-riding" and "mare-riding", and women were believed to engage in sex with the devil. The etymology of the word "nightmare", however, does not relate to horses. Rather, the word is derived from mara, a Scandinavian mythological term referring to a spirit sent to torment or suffocate sleepers. The early meaning of "nightmare" included the sleeper's experience of weight on the chest combined with sleep paralysis, dyspnea, or a feeling of dread. The painting incorporates a variety of imagery associated with these ideas, depicting a mare's head and a demon crouched atop the woman.

Fuseli may have added the horse as an afterthought, since a preliminary chalk sketch did not include it. Its presence in the painting has been viewed as a visual pun on the word "nightmare" and a self-conscious reference to folklore—the horse destabilizes the painting's conceit and contributes to its Gothic tone.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill (1628)
by Pieter Claesz (Belgium, 1597-1661)

In this still life, close observation and realistic detail operate in tension with explicit symbolism. The toppled glass, gap-toothed skull, and guttering wick of an oil lamp all serve as stark symbols of life’s brevity. Working with a limited palette of grays and browns, Claesz carefully describes the surfaces of these unsettling objects. By arranging them on a pitted stone ledge, the artist connects the picture’s space to our own, making the message all the more compelling.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Chauve-Souris D'Egypte [Bats of Egypt] (1809)
by Geoffrey St. Hilaire (French, 1772-1844)

The French campaign in Egypt and Syria was Napoleon's Bonaparte's invasion of Ottoman territories in the name of protecting French trade interests. An unusual aspect of the expedition was the inclusion of many scientists and scholars. 

This print is the first plate from the Histoire Naturelle volumes of the books containing the various animals, plants, and rocks that French scholars discovered during the Egyptian campaign. This plate depicts three species of bats: the Naked-Bellied Tomb Bat, the Hollow-Faced Bat, and the Common Pipistrelle Bat. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

"La Vie De L'Abeille" [The Life of the Bee] 

This beautiful antique French educational poster depicts the life cycle of the honeybee. 

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Kaloma (1914)
Photograph by Pastime Novelty Co. of New York

An iconic American photograph, at once time purported to have been of Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Marcus Earp, wife of Wyatt Earp. It is associated with Wyatt Earp, mainly because it appeared on the cover of a book called I Married Wyatt Earp.

However, this is unlikely to be her. According to antiques appraiser C. Wesley Cowan, The Pastime Novelty Company in New York City specialized in suggestive pictures and hired models as they could find them. Could Sadie have been one of them? Not likely. She was born in 1861. This photo was taken in 1914, meaning that she would have been 53 years old.

By the 1960s, Kaloma was revived as a risqué and nostalgic image, appearing in many hippie publications and concert poster art.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

Witches' Sabbath [El Aquelarre] (1798) 
Painting by Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828)

Witches' Sabbath shows the Devil in the form of a garlanded goat, surrounded by a coven of disfigured, young and aging, witches in a moonlit barren landscape. The goat possesses large horns and is crowned by a wreath of oak leaves. On the right, an old crone can be seen holding an extremely starved looking, but apparently still living, infant in her hands, while a younger witch to her right does the same with a healthier looking child, implying they will follow the same fate. The Devil seems to be acting as a sort of priest at an initiation ceremony for the children, although popular superstition at the time believed the Devil often fed on children and human fetuses. The dead body of an infant can be seen discarded to the left, whereas the legs of another can be seen held down with force to the ground by a presumably younger witch in the center foreground. More witches, young and old, can be seen in the background, as well as three dead infants, apparently manacled, hanging from the neck on a stake to the left in the distance.

Typical of the imagery of witchcraft, many of the symbols used are inverted. The goat extends his left rather than right hoof toward the child, while the quarter moon faces out of the canvas at the top left corner. In the middle high-ground, a number of bats can be seen flying overhead, their flocking motion echoing the curve of the crescent moon.

Matte Poster

Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink On archival matte paper Shipped in heavy duty poster tube Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.

• Printed with Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink
• On archival matte paper
• Shipped in heavy duty poster tube
• Heavy weight (230 gsm), thick base (9.5 mil), and an instant-dry coating that resists fingerprints and smudging.