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Faust: Part 1. Last Scene

Subject Relates to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German
1846–48
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Faust: Part 1. Last Scene
  • Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (British, London 1828–1882 Birchington-on-Sea)
  • Subject: Relates to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German, Frankfurt am Main 1749–1832 Weimar, Saxe-Weimar)
  • Date: 1846–48
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over graphite, on tan paper
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 10 7/8 × 8 9/16 in. (27.7 × 21.7 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Etheleen and Allen Staley, 2013
  • Object Number: 2013.1120
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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St. Cecily / Cecilia (related to illustration for The Palace of Art in Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903), Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Photogravure
St. Cecily / Cecilia (related to illustration for The Palace of Art in Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
New Amsterdam Book Company
1903
St. Cecily / Cecilia (Illustration for The Palace of Art in Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903), Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Wood engraving
St. Cecily / Cecilia (Illustration for The Palace of Art in Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dalziel Brothers
1857–1903
Mythic Uther's Deeply Wounded Son (King Arthur and the Weeping Queens) (Illustration for "The Palace of Art" in Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903), Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Photogravure
Mythic Uther's Deeply Wounded Son (King Arthur and the Weeping Queens) (Illustration for "The Palace of Art" in Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
New Amsterdam Book Company
1903
Mariana in the South (related to illustration for "The Palace of Art," Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903), Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Photogravure
Mariana in the South (related to illustration for "The Palace of Art," Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
New Amsterdam Book Company
1903
Sir Galahad (from Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903), Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Wood engraving
Sir Galahad (from Tennyson's Poems, New York, 1903)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
William James Linton
1857–1903

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