5 Creepy Paintings That Are Perfect for Halloween

The art world is no stranger to the macabre or the disturbing. As the quote by Cesar A. Cruz goes, “Art should seek to comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable.” Art as a medium seeks to make one uncomfortable, if at least in some sense, asking you to question your current and comfortable view of the world. But some art exceeds even those boundaries and is so to say, “really creepy.” With Halloween right around the corner, we’re all in the mood for spooky things. Thrills and chills are what we’re seeking right now and I’m sure many of us are cozying up with our favorite horror movies as we speak. Why not look at some art that reflects those scary fall moods and get ready for Halloween?

The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by artist Henry Fuselli. It depicts a woman in bed, sleeping fitfully, her arms thrown over her head. She is sleeping on her back and there’s an imp-like beast with cat-like ears on her chest keeping her from moving. To the side, there is a horse with ghostly wide eyes watching this scene. The painting, painted with its chiaroscuro and heavy shadows makes for a dark and unsettling piece for the viewer. The horse, at first glance, may seem to be a play on the word “nightmare” but as it turns out, the word nightmare has nothing to do with mares. The word “nightmare” is rather derived from the word mara which is a being from Scandinavian mythology sent to distress sleepers and torment them. 

Sleeping on the back often causes ailments such as sleep paralysis, which causes the victim not to be able to move, and fitfully stuck in their waking nightmare. It’s often said to be accompanied by the feeling of a heavy weight on the chest. This painting is probably a reference to feelings such as that of sleep paralysis. It’s a very unique painting in how it shows this almost universal experience of having nightmares in such an odd way.

This painting may have inspired famous writers as well! Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has a scene where the monster is over the dead body of Victor’s wife-to-be. It’s their wedding night interrupted by the monster, and the cold, frail body of Victor’s fiancée matches the pose of the woman in the painting alongside the unexpected visitor in the form of a monster rather than a horse. Edgar Allen Poe was also a writer who was fascinated by dreams. In The Fall of the House of Usher Poe describes a viewer coming upon a Fuselli painting and being struck by a feeling of fear and sickness to their stomach.

Our next painting is a very famous one. Saturn Devouring His Son is a painting by Spanish painter Francisco Goya, it was painted sometime between 1820 and 1823. There is a large figure tearing into a human body much smaller than it, the larger figure’s fingers digging into the back of the smaller human. It’s a bloody feast and the larger form’s eyes glow as they seem to pierce out of his skull.

Saturn Devouring His Son is part of a series of paintings known as the Black Paintings which were painted in secret on the walls of Goya’s own house. Because of this fact, there are no titles or descriptions for any of these paintings, leaving viewers to figure out the meanings themselves. While Saturn Devouring his Son is associated with the story of the titan Cronus, who, to avoid being overthrown by one of his sons by writ of a prophecy, devoured all his children and sealed his fate, there is no substantial proof that this is indeed the story that Goya was portraying. It makes it all the more chilling to know that this painting had no context. What must have been going on in the depths of Goya’s mind?

Well, for one he was very isolated in that point of life. He’d suffered a lifetime of illness and was deaf as a result of it. Working with his disability in such solitude must have been maddening combined with the effects of having seen the horrors of both war and the Spanish Inquisition. It’s no wonder that the Black Paintings are as dark as they are.

Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X is a painting by Francis Bacon. It’s a painting done after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X as a sort of tribute to Velázquez in a way; Bacon said that if Velázquez’s painting of the pope was based off Titian it “cooled Titian off” and the same way, Bacon sought to “cool Velázquez off.”

The painting depicts the Pope with a wide open mouth, screaming, but not being heard as he is surrounded and muted by curtains and bars of cages. The style of painting is very unrefined, and it uses a lot of bold marks. The paint is smeared and smudged in places stylistically. Bacon didn’t go to view Velázquez's original piece until much later, avoiding it beforehand. Over his life, Bacon completed a number of Pope paintings but destroyed many of them, unhappy with the results.

This painting is different in tone from many of Bacon’s paintings and it is believed that this is because he was at the end of a tumultuous and sometimes violent relationship with his much older partner, Peter Lacey. It would also explain the father figure of the Pope in this setting as well, and provide some personal insight into Bacon’s life.

Edvard Munch’s Vampire, painted in 1893 is a striking painting. It depicts a man with his face down, perhaps lamenting or grieving, perhaps sleeping. There’s a woman with long red flowing hair above him, holding him and cradling his head, her mouth hidden by the neck of the man as she seems to kiss him gently.

It’s true that the painting was originally titled “Love and Pain” by Munch himself, but the Vampire moniker seemed to catch on over time. This painting might have been scandalous for its time as well, with the woman’s bright hair attracting attention. The painting was even labeled degenerate by the Nazis. But we are left to wonder when “Vampire” caught on, and why. Perhaps it’s because of the siren-like qualities of the woman. Or maybe it’s how her bright red hair is so reminiscent of blood. It stands out starkly against the darkness of the man’s clothes and puts even more focus on her, the vampire. It’s a quiet scene and depending on your interpretation it can be scary, but my favorite part of this painting is how it can be both tender and off-putting. A vampire’s bite can be out of love, can’t it?

Our final painting is The Face of War by Dali. This disturbing painting features a human face contorted in pain. Inside the eyes and the mouth is another human head contorted in paint and inside its eyes and mouth are more and so it continues in an endless chain of suffering and torment. Snakes are surrounding the face as well. This painting is a representation of the human pain and suffering during the Spanish War. It speaks to tell us that the suffering from war is endless and that violence only begets more violence in an endless loop of hate. Dali once said, “War has never damaged anyone except the people who die.”

Each of these paintings sparks a different facet of fear, terror, or repulsion and it's fascinating to see what art can bring out in us as the viewers. What emotions does an art piece draw from you and how does it make you feel? We hope these paintings put you in the mood for Halloween and prove the point that art can indeed be disturbing.