Faust dans son cabinet

Goethe's Faust was a favourite subject for many Romantic artists and, in particular, for Delacroix in the later 1820s. The present work depicts Faust in his study before the arrival of Mephistopheles. His first works on the subject date from 1825 and his famous oil, Faust and Mephistopheles (Wallace Collection, London, J.116), was exhibited at the Salon in 1827, while his series of seventeen lithographs illustrating the story was published by Motte in 1828 (D.57-74). As in his other treatments of the theme, the present work displays the influence of Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-28), a friend and associate of Delacroix. They had first met in 1818 while sketching in the Louvre and they later shared a studio in Paris, both frequently working on the literary themes which were to become the mainstay of the blossoming genre troubadour.