Faust

Alternately titled: Faust Part I Last Scene

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848 (circa)

Bibliography

◦ Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, 8 (no. 36).

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Another of the Faust series of drawings that DGR was involved with in the years 1846-1848 (see commentary for Faust: Mephistopheles Outside Gretchen's Cell). This drawing is, however, quite unfinished.

Pictorial

This unfinished composition is more complex than any of the other Faust drawings. On the right are Mephistopheles and a young girl, presumably Gretchen, winged like an angel, whose arm is extended toward heaven. An angel hovers in the background with folded hands. Faust is presumably the middle of the three figures on the left, his head turned down and away. The confusion of the drawing is not solely due to its incomplete state; instead it refers to its source text. This scene is taken from the very end of Part I of Goethe's drama when Gretchen, just before she dies, has lapsed into a state of hallucination.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: s36.raw.xml