"I wanted to bring a ferocious energy that would enrapt people, " he said.

WSJ: Those Infectious Punjabi Dance Rhythms | Sunny Jain | Red Baraat | By Martin Johnson

He was all but forgotten when he died, in poverty, in 1840, but, still today, looking at a Friedrich can feel like a sideways tumble into a mental state that you may recognize against your will: hypersensitive, enrapt, and dire.

NEWYORKER: Inside Story