Man and woman in a landscape (Faust and Marguerite)
Rich brown ink is used here to describe a hilly landscape with a gallant figure in late medieval dress reading to a demure young woman. They likely represent Faust and Marguerite from Goethe's dramatic poem "Faust" (1808). The latter tells how a young nobleman becomes fascinated with magic, sells his soul to the devil and seduces and destroys the innocent Marguerite. Dramatic literary subjects of this kind appealed to the British-born Bonington, and to French artists he knew in Paris. His close friend Delacroix once owned this drawing and, in 1828, would create a series of seventeen lithographs inspired by Faust.
Artwork Details
- Title: Man and woman in a landscape (Faust and Marguerite)
- Artist: Richard Parkes Bonington (British, Arnold, Nottinghamshire 1802–1828 London)
- Author: Related author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German, Frankfurt am Main 1749–1832 Weimar, Saxe-Weimar)
- Date: ca. 1826–27
- Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of graphite
- Dimensions: sheet: 4 1/2 x 6 in. (11.4 x 15.2 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Anonymous Gift, in memory of Sisi Cahan, 2000
- Object Number: 2000.516
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Richard Parkes Bonington
1824–27
Richard Parkes Bonington
Feillet
1824
Richard Parkes Bonington
1824
Richard Parkes Bonington
Feillet
1824
Multiple artists/makers
1826
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