To some extent, all Romanticism has its origins in darkness, coming in the wake of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that introduced fear into the age of reason. ‘Reason’s Sleep Produces Monsters’ proclaims the opening drawing in Goya’s series ‘Los Caprichos’ (1797–99), which features in this entertaining exhibition. After all the cruelties that man had inflicted on man at the 18th century’s twilight, it was only natural to turn to ghosts and witches for light relief. The exhibition’s title comes from an Edgar Allan Poe story but Goya’s phrase would be equally appropriate.
The exhibition starts not with Goya but with F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), one of those German expressionist films that so influenced early cinema: silent and in black and white. Nosferatu was based, without attribution, on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and another clip, this one from Bela Lugosi’s Hollywood Dracula, is one of the exhibition’s funniest moments.
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