Faust: Part 1. Last Scene

Dante Gabriel Rossetti British
 Relates to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German

Not on view

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.

Faust: Part 1. Last Scene, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (British, London 1828–1882 Birchington-on-Sea), Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over graphite, on tan paper

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