---
title: "Sleep in art"
description: "Erotic dreams, nightmares, insomnia, artificial paradises and sleepwalking. We are captivated by these works in which the protagonists have fallen into the arms of Morpheus."
url: https://neomaniamagazine.com/sleep-art/
date: 2026-07-08
modified: 2026-07-08
author: "María de Juan"
image: https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sueno-en-el-arte-57-1280px.webp
categories: ["Art"]
tags: ["Neomania #57"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Sleep in art

**From erotic dreams to nightmares, including insomnia, artificial paradises, and sleepwalking, these are dream themes that fascinate our subconscious. They appear reflected in paintings, sculptures, drawings, and objects throughout the centuries.**

Many artists have explored the empire of sleep, a theme that has inspired painters and writers since antiquity. 

Delving into its pleasures and disturbances, we admire masterpieces by **Delacroix** and **Goya**, as well as scientific objects related to sleep research.

In Greek mythology, *Hypnos* personified sleep. He was the twin brother of *Nyx*, son of Night. *Thanatos*, who symbolises natural death, acts as the agent of *Hades*, who peacefully transports the dead to the underworld. 

The psychologist **Sigmund Freud** defined *Thanatos* as the death drive, self‑destruction, and aggression, opposed to *Eros*, the life drive.

Between *Hypnos*, *Eros*, and *Thanatos*, this state of rest has inspired countless stories from artists about the tranquility or anguish it brings to sleepers.

![sueño en el arte](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sueno-en-el-arte-57-02.webp)

Sleep, a sensual pleasure associated with the bedroom, is a space-time intimately linked to sensuality. 

We find a peaceful escape in the verses of the dreamy poet **John Faed**, contemplating with wonder a [romantic](https://neomaniamagazine.com/romanticism/) landscape, the evocative nymphs of **Ingres**, or the sculptures of **Auguste [Rodin](https://neomaniamagazine.com/rodin/)**, with their intertwined figures of *Cupid* and *Psyche*.

This state of tranquility reaches a mystical dimension in the work of the symbolist **Odilon Redon**. 

It is also illustrated by the delicate scene of a sleeping mother beside her child, a work by **Joaquín Sorolla**.

> “Sweet sleep, you come like pure happiness…”
> Goethe

Dreams full of dreams, nights of restlessness. However, even when moving away from *Thanatos*, sleep remains dark. 

It is even the ultimate realm of the strangest tales, like the nocturnal creatures drawn by **Alfred Kubin**, the symbolist engravings of **Jean-Jacques Grandville** or the portrait of a night owl painted by **Edvard Munch**.

Tormented by nightmares, the sleeper travels to eccentric, distressing, irrational worlds or tries to escape them by remaining awake. 

Whether we sleep well or suffer from chronic insomnia, we inevitably find ourselves immersed in this inescapable dream empire.

![sueño en el arte](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sueno-en-el-arte-57-04.webp)

Sleep became a symbolic theme, rich in interpretations, both mystical and scientific. 

The 19th and 20th centuries allow us to explore the impact of ***Romanticism***, industrialisation, and the birth of psychoanalysis with **Sigmund Freud**.

The image of the sleeper raises questions: Did they fall asleep suddenly? Or did they breathe their last, and will we never see their eyes open again?

Artists play with this ambiguity, juxtaposing sleepy faces with the faces of the dead. Like the photograph of **Victor Hugo** taken by **Felix Nadar** on his deathbed, or the portrait of the deceased **Camille**, painted by her husband **[Monet](https://neomaniamagazine.com/es/claude-monet/)**.

A similar theme is the biblical *Raising of Jairus’s Daughter* by **Gabriel von Max**. The girl is not dead, but simply asleep as Jesus has resurrected her.

![sueño en el arte 57 03](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sueno-en-el-arte-57-03.webp)

**Paul Rubens** painted his nephews lost in sleep. This tradition continued into the 19th century with Swiss painters like **Albert Anker**. We discover magnificent canvases with sleeping children, such as *My Second Sermon* (1864) by **John Everett Millais** and the poignant *Violet Seller* by **Fernand Pelez** (1885).

According to Christian tradition, in the final moments of the Virgin Mary’s life, the *Dormition* (Latin for sleep) precedes the *Assumption*. The twelve apostles appear gathered around the bed of the dying Virgin Mary before her ascension into heaven.

The exhibition explores the connection between the two sons of *Nyx*, goddess of Night, in Greek mythology: *Hypnos* and his twin brother *Thanatos*, representing Sleep and Death. 

This large canvas is the work of the London [Pre-Raphaelite](https://neomaniamagazine.com/pre-raphaelites/) painter **Evelyn De Morgan**. It depicts Night taking Sleep by the arm, who holds a bouquet of poppies. Their two figures float in the sky and Night’s great cloak completely envelops Sleep’s body.

![sueño en el arte 57 01](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sueno-en-el-arte-57-01.webp)

**Maximile Pirner** offers a romantic vision of sleepwalking. A young woman in a nightgown balances on a ledge, as if sleep were carrying her along a fragile walkway, on the edge of a precipice. With the ledge in the foreground, the artist reinforces the feeling of imbalance. 

We see a haunting self-portrait by **Edvard Munch**, with cavernous eyes, titled *The Sleepwalker*. 

In contrast, there is a whimsical painting by **Ditlev Blunck**, *The Nightmare*, where a kind of monkey with a hare’s head appears on the languid body of a young woman. 

*The Siesta* by **Michael Ancher** shows a young woman dressed in blue, dozing peacefully on a bench. Capture that pause where time stands still. 

A detour through biblical origins with **Giuseppe Petrini**‘s *Le Sommeil de Saint Pierre* transports us to deeper realms, where sleep becomes synonymous with dreams, desire, anxiety and even death.

**Arturo Martini**‘s sculpture *La Pisana* depicts a reclining nude woman, caught in the act of sleep. It inspires a fusion of feelings: serenity and sensuality.

The final surprise is **Charles Matton**‘s *La chambre d’un collectionneur romantique*, a miniature reconstruction of a messy bedroom.

![sueño en el arte](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sueno-en-el-arte-57-08.webp)

How else could such an exhibition end but where dreams take shape? 

Bathed in yellow tones, this final room recreates the bedroom, a sanctuary for those who love the siesta. Every little detail captivates us, from the slippers abandoned at the foot of the bed to the chair covered in clothes—that familiar image where we’re all guilty… We love discovering the evolution of this intimate space, from a private, veiled room to a place of total surrender and sensuality.

We spend an average of a third of our lives sleeping. We have a serene view of sleep, conceived as pure happiness, as a moment of escape from life’s worries.

We succumb to these delightful works where their protagonists have fallen into the arms of Morpheus.

The recent exhibition *The Empire of Sleep* reminds us that canvases could also dream. And that, sometimes, it is better to close our eyes to see more clearly.