7 Spook-Tacular Artworks for Halloween

1. 'The Nightmare' by Henry Fuseli

Fuseli's The Nightmare has been frightening viewers ever since it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782. The original 18th-century audiences were scared, but also scandalized and titillated, due to the underlying sexual connotations of the painting – it shows a woman stretched out asleep, with a small monster sat on her chest. 

This mythological demon is what's known as an incubus, which, along with its female counterpart the succubus, sits on the chest of sleeping people. 
Is the painting showing the woman's dream, or what's actually happening to her? No one knows.

With its depiction of sex, dreams and the unconscious, Fuseli's painting later became well-loved within the study of psychoanalysis, and Freud even had a print of it on the wall of his apartment.

2. 'The Scream' by Edvard Munch

One of the most famously freaky artworks in history, the story of Munch's conception of the picture is almost scarier than the artwork itself. Munch based the painting on an experience he had when out walking with two friends in Ekebergåsen on the outskirts of Christiania in Norway:

3. 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony' by Joos van Craesbeeck

Influenced by Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel, Joos van Craesbeeck's painting of Saint Anthony alongside a giant head features countless devilish creatures and demons.

4. 'Ghost of the Wet-Nurse Iohata' by Kunisada

Utagawa Kunisada created this ukiyo-e woodblock print in 1824. Rather than showing a ghost itself, it depicts the actor Onoe Kikugoro III playing the ghost of the wet-nurse Iohata in a Kabuki performance.

5. 'Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette' by Vincent van Gogh

This skeleton with a lit cigarette in its mouth is something of a joke by the young student Van Gogh. He painted it in early 1886 while studying at art school in Antwerp, Belgium. Drawing skeletons was a standard exercise at the academy. Painting one with a lit, smoking cigarette in its mouth shows Van Gogh's youthful rebellious side.

6. 'Witches' Sabbath' by Francisco Goya

The main character in the scene is the devil, depicted as a large male goat who is being given two babies, either as an offering or as part of an initiation ceremony into witchcraft.

7. 'Princess Takiyasha Summons a Skeleton Spectre to Frighten Mitsukuni' by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi frequently depicted myths, legends, and stories from history in his woodblock prints, like this one dating from 1844 which shows princess Takiyasha summoning a skeleton to frighten Ōya no Mitsukuni. Here we see the princess reciting a spell written on a handscroll, as the giant skeleton specter crashes through the palace walls.