Article

Hidden Halloween Treasures in the National Gallery’s Collection

4 min read

This Halloween, we’ve pulled out some of our spookiest artworks, from the ghoulish to the darkly funny to the outright bizarre.

Discover terrifying treasures from Hieronymous Bosch, William Blake, Edvard Munch, and Andy Warhol—plus lesser-known artists who brilliantly captured ghosts, witches, vampires, and monsters. These works are sure to send shivers down your spine.

  • This is a photograph of a rustic doorway adorned with a hanging cloth. The image presents an aged stone doorway typical of a historic or rural setting. The stone blocks framing the entrance are weathered. Draped across the doorway is a large, light-colored cloth, hanging from a line. Inside the enclosure, there is a sack positioned at the base and a birdcage partially visible near the top. The textured wall surrounding the door is marked and weathered.
  • The image shows twisted metal wires and a simulated eyeball on a rough terrain of gritty earth and jagged rocks. It is presented in black and white, with a grayscale color palette. The eyeball is partially buried in the soil towards the right side, while the metal wires stretch diagonally from the top left to the bottom right, casting shadows on the ground. Rocks of different sizes and textures are scattered unevenly over the surface.
  • The image depicts the upper body of a person seated, facing the camera directly. Their facial features are hidden behind a mask resembling a contorted monster with exaggerated wrinkles, an open mouth with fangs, and raised eyebrows. The individual has unkempt, bushy hair and wears a distressed suit jacket with visible paint splatters or stains. Underneath, they have a lighter shirt. The background is plain and dark, and the image has a sepia-toned, aged look with visible scratches and worn corners.
  • Printed in black on cream-white paper, a person standing on a bridge holds both hands to their oval-shaped head in this stylized lithograph. The person’s waifish body creates an S-shape, and their hollow eyes look slightly off to the left. The face has exaggeratedly high cheekbones, and the mouth is open in a tall oval. The bridge stretches from the bottom right corner of the print to the middle of the left edge of the sheet. Two black silhouettes represent people at the far end of the bridge. A curving form in the distance suggests a body of water with a couple of masted ships near the coastline. The rest of the landscape is carved with woodgrain-like, closely spaced, organic lines, and waves surge across the sky. A printed inscription in the margin below the image reads “Geschrei” and a pencil inscription in the lower right corner reads, “Edw Munch No 21.”
  • This is a painting of a figure on the cover of a comic titled "Bogeyman." The image shows a creature with large eyes and sharp teeth, holding an insect in one hand. The creature's hair is electrified and it wears a tattered garment with a patch on the shoulder. The background features a surreal landscape with a graveyard, a twisted barren tree, and gravestones under a moonlit night sky. The top part of the image displays the title "BOGEYMAN" in yellow letters against an orange-red background. Additional text labels the book as "Soul Snatcher Comix." The illustration has a vintage horror style reminiscent of 1970s underground comic art.
  • This is a drawing of skeletons in a social scene. The room is filled with skeleton figures, some seated at a table while others are in the background. Two skeletons at the table wear hats with lettering and appear to be conversing. A small skeleton under the table holds a gun, and various objects are scattered on the floor. Other skeletons are visible in the background, peering over balconies. The drawing uses contrast and detailed line work to convey depth and energy.
  • This print displays swirling lines and shapes creating an abstract composition. The lines converge and diverge to form outlines resembling abstract human figures engaged in dynamic motion. The central people are bent and twisted, suggesting movement akin to dancers or people in a lively gathering. Behind them seems to be a large light source, as if they are dancing in front of a bonfire, creating patterns of light and dark lines in the background.
  • The image showcases organic and fluid shapes with bold sweeping lines intersecting across the canvas. The abstract composition features navy blue and vivid orange-red colors. Swirling patterns and overlapping layers create an image reminiscent of a turbulent sea or an aerial landscape. Darker regions suggest shadows or imprints, while lighter areas resemble highlights catching the light, similar to natural rock formations or cloudscapes.
  • This print shows a nude woman riding backwards on a large flying goat. The goat faces the right and has its front legs outstretched, while the woman faces the left and has one arm out behind her to grab one of the goat's horns. Her long hair flows out behind her, and her face appears wrinkled. She has a long cloth draped around her right elbow, and in that hand she holds a tall object with a bundle at the top. Below her and the goat, several cherubic figures stand or lay on the ground. They are nude and have small wings. Two stand and hold objects, including a potted plant and a circular object that looks like a large jug or beehive. Closer to us, two of the cherubs are on the ground, one bowing down and one laying with an arm outstretched. The ground they are on appears sandy, with small rocks and sparse patches of grass. Behind the group is a body of water or flat plain. The sky behind the woman on the goat is blank, except for some rays that appear in the top left corner of the print.
  • The image features bold shapes and intricate lines. The top section includes rounded, dark forms against a lighter background. The shapes suggest the tops of vases or bottles. Below, two skeletal forms resembling animal skeletons are seen in a shadowy band. The main feature is a shape at the bottom with horn-like extensions and sharp teeth. The artwork uses dark and light contrasts, along with hints of purple, for an abstract quality.
  • The image features intricate, swirling lines and shapes creating an abstract scene. The elements form twisting figures with pointed features resembling eyes and teeth. The overlapping lines resemble clouds or waves, contributing to the dynamic composition suggesting movement or turbulence.
  • A nude, muscular man with pale mauve-pink skin and seven human heads straddles a blue-skinned creature with seven beast-like heads in this vertical ink and watercolor illustration. The body of the Great Red Dragon, the creature with mauve skin, and his outstretched, webbed wings nearly fill the composition. The wings are spotted with silver, five-pointed stars. Rams’ horns scroll from his central head and some of the smaller heads to each side. Two of the outer heads have horns like unicorns but the faces are obscured by others in front. He stands with knees slightly bent and feet widely planted on choppy waters. His arms are thrust straight by his sides so the palms face down and the fingers flare outward. Fins jut out from next to his right knee and ankle, to our left. The second creature, the Beast from the Sea, is between the Great Red Dragon’s legs, sunk up to the chest in the white-crested water. The Beast looks up at the Great Red Dragon with all seven, equally sized heads. These heads also have straight or curling horns but exaggerated, thick lips and feline-like noses. The Beast raises both arms so one is in front of one of the Great Red Dragon’s legs and the other is behind. The Beast holds up a flaming sword with the right hand, to our left, and a flaming object, perhaps a scepter or torch, in the other hand. The background behind the pair is inky black. The artist signed the lower right, “WB inv.”
  • This print shows a man resting his head on his folded arms on top of a desk, which is in the bottom left corner. Under his head, papers rest on the desk next to a few writing implements. The man is dressed in a light-colored garment with loose sleeves and light breeches, and he has short, dark hair. Surrounding him are owls and bats, some resting on him or near him, and some flying in the air above him. A large cat-like animal sits in the bottom right corner, looking towards the man. The background is gray with small white dots, and there are words written in white on the light gray desk.
  • This is a print of a skeleton with wings, seated on a table. The skeleton appears to be holding or unfurling a large sheet of paper or cloth, on which is drawn the outline of a muscular human. The composition is set in a stark room with shadows cast by a strong, unseen light source, that casts a circle of light around the skeleton. On the table beside the skeleton and beneath it is a collection of skulls and bones.
  • Painted entirely in shades of white, charcoal, and steel gray, a slim, white, almost ghostly dog makes its way from our left to right with its snout held low, along a sidewalk or rails in this vertical composition. The dog is thinly painted and blurry, as if shown in action, so the details are difficult to make out. The dark, gray space is defined only by three diagonals running from the center of the left edge down into the lower right corner. Within the band made by the lower two diagonals, two parallel sets of curving, parallel lines suggest grates or gutters over storm drains. Seeming unrelated to the rest of the image, three faint, gray, ruled lines radiate upward from a point near the lower-left corner to intersect the lowermost border defining the gutter.
  • This dark photograph shows a person standing near the top left corner with their arms extended out to either side, appearing to grasp a piece of dark fabric or a cloak. The individual's head is obscured in shadow, and their pale, nude body is only partially visible. Behind them, on the right, appears to be a large rock. Closer to us, at the bottom of the photograph, the ground appears rough and natural, littered with twigs, long branches, and stones. The scene is very dark, and some details are hard to make out.
  • A naked man with ghostly white skin sits upright in a canopied bed set in a narrow room in this tall, vertical painting. Wearing a black cap, he looks to our left in profile toward a skeleton who comes through a door along the left edge of the composition. The man gestures at the skeleton with one hand and, with the other, toward a bag of money held up by a small demon next to the bed to our left. The skeleton wears a white shroud and holds an arrow. A winged angel kneels next to the man in the bed, one hand on the man’s shoulder and the other lifted to gesture at a crucifix hanging in the window over the door. A small devil on the canopy above looks down onto the bed. At the foot of the bed, a man wearing a green robe and headdress drops coins into a sack held by another demon. Three more demons crawl about and hide under the chest. Pieces of armor and weapons lie on the ground to the right in front of a stone ledge in the foreground. Two pieces of clothing drape over the ledge to our left.
  • This painting features a scene with curved walls and arches. To the left of the painting, there is a person in maroon and grey attire hiding behind a curved wall. To the right, four elongated human figures in dark attire with top hats appear to be floating in midair to the left around a circular structure. One of the floating people turns toward us, while the other three face ahead. The walls are a dark yellow color, while the sky behind the curved structure is red with dark, branch-like shapes.

You may also like

Article:  Going through Hell? See Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” in Art

Travel with artists through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell.

Article:  Delicious, Daring, and Deadly Materials in Art

Trick or treat? Discover artists' materials that range from spooky to delicious.