In a Dream (Im Traum)
Alfred Kubin
Austrian, 1877–1959
c. 1903
An ink-on-paper drawing in which Alfred Kubin stages a single, uncanny dream: a cloaked man on a rocky shore confronts oversized, hybrid sea-creatures while a swimmer is borne in the churning waves, intended to evoke the disorienting logic and dread of a nightmare.
What strikes you first are the restless, engraved lines—dense hatching and swirling contours that flatten space so figures appear like phantoms, a huge fin and a ghostly floating form looming over the turbulent sea.
Made around 1903, this piece exemplifies Kubin’s Symbolist fascination with the grotesque and the unconscious and helped visualize the interior, psychological landscapes that prefigured Expressionist and Surrealist explorations of dream imagery.
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
7 7/8 x 12 5/8" (20 x 32.1 cm) (irreg.)
Classification
Department
Credit
John S. Newberry Fund
Accession
441.1967
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
