Somnambulant by Maximilian Pirner: The Sleepwalker on the Ledge (1878)
A young woman in a white nightgown stands barefoot on a narrow stone ledge, high above the ground, at night. Behind her, a window glows with warm lamplight; in front of her there is nothing but dark air, distant hills and a single star. Her eyes are closed and her face is turned up, calm, almost blissful. She does not know where she is. Maximilian Pirner painted Somnambulant in 1878, at twenty-four, while he was still a student in Vienna, and it is one of the strangest and most quietly frightening pictures of the nineteenth century. Maximilian Pirner, Somnambulant , 1878. Oil on canvas, 157 × 87 cm. National Gallery Prague (O 13893). Fine-art print available from the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: Maximilian Pirner (1854–1924), Czech painter Title: Somnambulant (also known as The Sleepwalker ) Date: 1878 Medium: Oil on canvas, 157 × 87 cm Collection: National Gallery Prague, Coll...