Arti­cle Idle Sleep

Focus on the Peck Feature

Artists have depict­ed the theme of sleep for cen­turies. The mean­ing of such images can be numer­ous depend­ing on who sleeps, where and how they sleep, and their rea­sons for doing so. Using a draw­ing attrib­uted to sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Dutch artist Jacob Duck of a slum­ber­ing youth as inspi­ra­tion, this Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion explores the ways in which artists have assigned moral judg­ments to peo­ple who have fall­en asleep unin­ten­tion­al­ly. Rang­ing in date from the fif­teenth to the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry, these works warn against sleep obtained through idle­ness and lazi­ness, illus­trat­ing how slum­ber­ing with­out earn­ing it can have detri­men­tal effects.


On aver­age, humans spend about a third of their lives sleep­ing. It is no sur­prise, then, that artists have depict­ed the theme in their works for cen­turies. Visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tions of sleep can carry mul­ti­ple mean­ings depend­ing on who is sleep­ing, where and how they sleep, and their rea­sons for doing it. While some artists focus on the inter­nal, psy­cho­log­i­cal aspects of sleep­ing and dream­ing, oth­ers con­sid­er the per­son­al and social caus­es and con­se­quences of sleep­ing, espe­cial­ly if the act is unplanned.

Prior to the 1600s, sleep­ing fig­ures were most com­mon­ly asso­ci­at­ed with sloth, one of Christianity’s seven dead­ly sins. As a foun­tain­head for other vices, it was con­sid­ered the worst of sins and was often rep­re­sent­ed along­side and con­nect­ed to oth­ers, such as glut­tony, depict­ed by overindul­gence, and lust. Using a draw­ing attrib­uted to sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Dutch artist Jacob Duck of a slum­ber­ing youth as inspi­ra­tion, this Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion explores the ways in which artists have assigned moral judg­ments to peo­ple who have fall­en asleep unin­ten­tion­al­ly. Rang­ing in date from the fif­teenth to the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry, these works warn against sleep obtained through idle­ness and lazi­ness, illus­trat­ing how slum­ber­ing with­out earn­ing it can have detri­men­tal effects. 

A Sleep­ing Youth

Drawing of a man sleeping in his clothing.

attrib­uted to Jacob Duck, Dutch, c. 1600 – 1667, A Sleep­ing Youth, c. 1650-60, black chalk, The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.23.

See A Sleep­ing Youth in more detail here.

In his the­atri­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tions of broth­el, tav­ern, and guard­room scenes, Jacob Duck reg­u­lar­ly incor­po­rat­ed sleep­ing fig­ures that, while amus­ing at times, often car­ried moral mes­sages. Here, a fully dressed young man, prob­a­bly a sol­dier, lies asleep on the ground with his prop­er right arm draped over his still behat­ted head. The but­tons of his jack­et and trouser legs have come undone, result­ing in a disheveled appear­ance. In Duck’s paint­ings, sleep­ing sol­diers rep­re­sent­ed var­i­ous unfa­vor­able con­di­tions, such as idle­ness and intox­i­ca­tion, but could also sig­ni­fy neu­tral fig­ures that rest for prag­mat­ic rea­sons. With­out more visu­al clues, it is dif­fi­cult to deter­mine any par­tic­u­lar mis­con­duct or overindul­gence on the part of Duck’s fig­ure, other than that he is sleep­ing fully dressed when like­ly not meant to do so.

The Absinthe Drinker

Drawing of a man sleeping on a bench in a restaurant or bar after consuming absinthe.

Less­er Ury, Ger­man, 1861 – 1931, The Absinthe Drinker, 1920, dry­point, Bur­ton Emmett Col­lec­tion, 58.1.2271.

See The Absinthe Drinker in more detail here. 

For cen­turies, drunk­en sleep was asso­ci­at­ed with the sin of glut­tony, or over­con­sump­tion. As the title of this print indi­cates, the man lying in the fore­ground has suc­cumbed to the pow­er­ful and intox­i­cat­ing influ­ence of absinthe. He sleeps on a bench inside a restau­rant, with arm over­head, his hat lay­ing on the floor. As oth­ers con­verse out­side and exhib­it per­fect­ly accept­able behav­ior, he appears iso­lat­ed and alone. The sleep­ing fig­ure, in this pub­lic, uncon­scious state, pro­vides a pow­er­ful exem­plar against overindul­gence and the accom­pa­ny­ing neg­a­tive social consequences. 

The Dream of the Doc­tor (The Temp­ta­tion of the Idler)

Etching of a man having fallen asleep sitting upright. The nude figure of the goddess Venus appears next to him.

Albrecht Dürer, Ger­man, 1471 – 1528, The Dream of the Doc­tor (The Temp­ta­tion of the Idler), c. 1498, engrav­ing, Ack­land Fund, 66.8.1.

See The Dream of the Doc­tor (The Temp­ta­tion of the Idler) in more detail here.

“Idling is the pil­low of the devil.” This early proverb warns against the sin of sloth or lazi­ness, a theme Albrecht Dürer explores in this engrav­ing. Here, a schol­ar is lulled into sleep by the warmth of a large stove. As his head rests against a large pil­low, the devil blows fan­tasies into his ear using fire­place bel­lows. The demon­ic provo­ca­tion inspires the scholar’s sub­con­scious to con­jure Venus, the clas­si­cal god­dess of love, whose nude fig­ure embod­ies sex­u­al temp­ta­tion. The mes­sage is clear: the sin of idle­ness acts as a well­spring for other immoral behav­iors like lust. The oppor­tunis­tic devil, there­fore, will always take advan­tage of a lack of vigilance.

The Sleep­ing Congregation

A congregation sleeps as an old preacher gives a sermon. The second awake figure, a large clerk, leers at the bosom of a sleeping woman.

Cosmo Arm­strong, British, 1781 – 1836 (or later), after William Hog­a­rth, British, 1697 - 1764, The Sleep­ing Con­gre­ga­tion, from The Works of Hog­a­rth, 1833, engrav­ing, Prove­nance Unknown, L87.55.724.

See The Sleep­ing Con­gre­ga­tion in more detail here.

Unable to remain atten­tive dur­ing a long-wind­ed ser­mon, mem­bers of the con­gre­ga­tion slum­ber while the preach­er iron­i­cal­ly reads from the book of Matthew ​“Come to me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28). Just as the sleep­ing audi­ence rep­re­sents a poor model of Chris­t­ian piety, so too does the preach­er who remains metaphor­i­cal­ly asleep to the spir­i­tu­al needs of his peo­ple. Mean­while, the watch­ful clerk at the cen­ter leers slyly at the sleep­ing young woman’s bosom in the fore­ground. Although the text of her book indi­cates she like­ly dreams of mar­riage, her exposed state has actu­al­ly made her an object of unchaste desire. 

Jan­u­ary 21 to April 17, 2022