This picture is an emblematic interpretation of the The House of Life
DGR executed the drawing with this title in July 1848 and he began but never finished an
oil version, which he worked at for three or four months (see Family Letters
Faust
The drawing recalls Faust
Eriko Yamaguchi has identified a pictorial source for this work in Camille Bonnard's Costumes Historiques
Podestat
The House of Life
DGR: An Illustrated Memorial
Painter Poet of Heaven and Earth
The Poetry of DGR
DGR as Designer and Writer
A Catalogue Raisonné
Costumes Historiques,
EX NOCTE DIES