The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane
1858
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
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
Accession Number
1994.120
Tags
About this artwork
Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" inspired Quidor to paint the climactic moment from this famous tale. Ichabod Crane is a prickly and stuck-up schoolmaster and a bumbling suitor for the lovely Katrina, who uses him to make her beau jealous. The pompous twit is no match for the clever locals, and he disappears, chased away by the headless horseman through a darkened wood. Irving's educated nitwit, strapping local boy and flirtatious beauty would reappear as folk characters through...