Faust: Part 1. Last Scene

Dante Gabriel Rossetti|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1846–48 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over graphite, on tan paper · Drawings and Prints

Rossetti made this drawing just before he joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and it demonstrates his early fascination with Goethe’s Faust, a source that later inspired his Lady Lilith (MMA, 08.162.1). Belonging to a series of lively compositions devoted to Gretchen’s seduction and imprisonment, this sheet shows the heroine praying for strength as she resists Mephistopheles’ compromising offer of freedom—angels and demons represent the spiritual struggle underpinning the drama. The hatched pen work indicates Rossetti’s close study of German engravings.

Artist

Dante Gabriel Rossetti|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Date

1846–48

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over graphite, on tan paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Etheleen and Allen Staley, 2013