Gretchen (Margaret) and Mephistopheles in the Church (from Goethe's Faust)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
circa 1848 (monogrammed and dated)
Materials
Pencil on paper
Measurements
370 x 285 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287114
Summary
Pencil drawing on paper, Gretchen (Margaret) and Mephistopheles in the Church (from Goethe's Faust) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), signed with monogram "G.C.D.R." , circa 1848. From 1846 to 1848 and at intervals throughout his life Rossetti was particularly interested in subjects from Goethe's play Faust; there are several in the Munro collection. This drawing is one of three versions of the scene from Part 1 where Mephistopheles (the Devil) appears to Gretchen (Margaret). Rossetti explained the subject with reference to another of the versions: "Margaret, having abandoned virtue and caused the deaths of her mother and brother, is tormented by the Evil Spirit at mass, during the chaunt of the 'Dies Irae' ". The drawing is pre- Pre-Raphaelite: it has the mediaevalising setting but not the spiky angularity and hard outline of early Pre-Raphaelite drawings. Kneeling figure of a woman in a church collapsing over a prie-dieu, face hidden in her hand, her right hand placed at back of her head. Mephistopheles stands over her whispering; to the left a hooded figure carrying a young child points a forefinger. Glazed in narrow giltwood frame, cream card mount.
Provenance
Given by the artist to Alexander Munro (Inverness 1825 – Cannes 1871); by descent to his daughter-in-law Margaret Caroline Neaves, Mrs John Arthur Ruskin Munro in 1944; by descent to his grand-daughter Mrs Katherine MacDonald, by whom placed on permanent loan 1995; accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Wightwick Manor, 2017.
Marks and inscriptions
Archer, Cowley and Co, Oxford (label on backboard)
Makers and roles
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), artist
References
Surtees 1971 Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882). A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, no. 34B