Educational Insights
Speaking of Pictures
The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane by John Quidor
To a trained eye, almost every artwork contains clues that reveal a story. An artist can convey subtle meaning through symbols or composition. Sometimes the painter simply illustrates a well-known narrative, as is the case here. Roll over various parts of this artwork to read excerpts from a famous Halloween tale.
John Quidor, The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, 1858, oil, 26 7/8 x 33 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible in part by the Catherine Walden Myer Endowment, the Julia D. Strong Endowment, and the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1994.120
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Reading the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a popular way to inaugurate the Halloween season—so why not explore the Smithsonian American Art Museum's painting on the same subject?
In Washington Irving's 1819 story, the hapless and awkward teacher Ichabod Crane covets the rich Van Tassel farm and adores pretty Katrina Van Tassel. His rival, Bram Bones, also courts the lovely girl. Disguised as the Headless Horseman in a huge cape, Bones frightens Ichabod in the midnight forest and launches what appears to be his head—a pumpkin—at Ichabod. The poor teacher was never seen again in the village of Sleepy Hollow.
John Quidor had a knack for making Irving's yarns come alive in pictures. Here he caught Ichabod's terror at the height of the drama. Roll over the image and read related excerpts from the story.
Print the Popups
"Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash,-he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwind."
"On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!-but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!"
"In the centre of the road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air."
"The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with terror."
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