Le Songe
Important precursors of Expressionism were the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), especially his philosophical novel "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (1883–1892); the later plays of the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg (1849–1912), including the trilogy "To Damascus" 1898–1901, "A Dream Play" (1902), "The Ghost Sonata" (1907); Frank Wedekind (1864–1918), especially the "Lulu" plays "Erdgeist" ("Earth Spirit") (1895) and "Die Büchse der Pandora" ("Pandora's Box") (1904); the American poet Walt Whitman's (1819–1892) "Leaves of Grass" (1855–1891); the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881); Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944); Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890); Belgian painter James Ensor (1860–1949); and pioneering Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856–1939).