Faust: Part 1. Last Scene

Faust: Part 1. Last Scene

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Faust: Part 1. Last SceneFaust: Part 1. Last SceneFaust: Part 1. Last SceneFaust: Part 1. Last SceneFaust: Part 1. Last Scene

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.