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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
Lady Lilith, Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor)
Lady Lilith
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Henry Treffry Dunn
1867
On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey, William Callow British, Watercolor
On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey
William Callow
September 30, 1858
Study of Eleven Heads, Jacques de Gheyn II Netherlandish, Pen and three shades of brown ink with black chalk on laid paper; framing lines in pen and brown ink and graphite
Study of Eleven Heads
Jacques de Gheyn II
late 16th–early 17th century
Jane Morris: Study for "Mariana", Dante Gabriel Rossetti British, Red, brown, off-white and black chalk on tan paper; four sheets butt-joined (and slightly tented)
Jane Morris: Study for "Mariana"
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Subject William Shakespeare
1868
Stroh Violin, George Evans & Co. English, Mahogany and aluminum, British
Stroh Violin
George Evans & Co.
first quarter 20th century

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