Man and apparition

Romantic literary and fantastic subjects predominate in Von Holst’s oeuvre, derived from authors such as Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, and Victor Hugo. He turned most often to Goethe’s Faust, and the present image may represent an imagined visit from Gretchen's ghost to the guilt-wracked Faust.
Von Holst’s precocious talent was recognized by Thomas Lawrence, who bought a drawing from the youth when the latter was ten years old. After taking lessons from Henry Fuseli, Von Holst entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of fourteen in 1824. Fuseli remained a strong influence stylistically and the works of the two artists have often been confused. In 1959, an album assembled by John Welch Etherington Rolls (1807-1870) appeared at auction containing drawings by both artists, and subsequent research allowed a core group to be securely ascribed to Von Holst, the present sheet among them.