Going to sleep is a routine activity for all of us, or a lack of activity if you prefer to call it so. But the idea has never before attracted art experts anywhere in the world to organise an entire exhibition on the subject.
Currently, the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris is having an unusual exhibit, ‘The Empire of Sleep’, showing some 130 paintings and sculptures thoroughly devoted to the subject of sleep and brought in from museums as well as private collections in foreign countries.
The exhibition includes many mindboggling scenes so far unknown to the public outside the countries of their origin. One such example is the oil work Mother and Child by an early 20th century Spanish painter named Joaquin Sorolla. The large canvas initially appears to be snow-covered sea waves, which in reality are the folds of a silky blanket covering a woman and her baby, both asleep, with only their faces showing under what appears to be a white, cloudy storm.
Another extremely fascinating example, among so many others, is The Poet‘s Dream by the British painter John Faed (1819-1902), in which the dreamer is lying on a wide green hill with the blue sky and grey clouds as background characters. Not much known to global audiences, Faed was well appreciated in his home country during his own lifetime for his many paintings inspired by Shakespeare’s plays.
A museum in Paris has devoted an entire exhibition to a rather unusual subject
One work heavily attracting visitors is The Lady’s Nightmare — a 1781 oil canvas painting by the Swiss painter Henry Fuseli. Like some sort of vision out of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the painting depicts a woman in a deep, nightmarish sleep, as the Devil and a horrifyingly depicted horse watch on.
Questioned as to why they chose this strange subject for an art exhibition, one of the organisers responds: “Going to sleep is a mysterious adventure, where consciousness leaves its place to slumber. And then come pleasant dreams… or frightening nightmares, it all depends on the circumstances! When you wake up, you could be perturbed by what you’ve just been through, but in most cases rather amused as well!”
The Empire of Sleep’ is on display at the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris from October 9, 2025- March 1, 2026
The writer is an art critic based in Paris. He can be reached at zafmasud@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, EOS, November 30th, 2025
