Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman

On view in the American Art before 1900 galleries

In a dark scene from Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” John Quidor depicts Ichabod Crane fleeing in terror. The flamboyantly imaginative Quidor does not show the headless horseman in pursuit, fo­cusing instead on the palpable fear that infects both Crane and his horse and emphasizing the darker, emotional, and chaotic aspects of the author’s stories through the landscape. This painting was the artist’s earliest attempt to portray an Irving tale.