Mephistopheles as a dog following Faust and Wagner home

Redon's drawing illustrates the poet Gérard de Nerval's translation of Goethe's text, in which Mephistopheles first appears to Faust and Wagner, his research assistant, on Easter morning in the form of a dog. Faust is worried by the presence of the black dog following them through the countryside, but Wagner responds 'Tu vois ! ce n'est là qu'un chien, et non un fantôme. Il grogne et semble dans l'incertitude; il se met sur le ventre, agite sa queue, toutes manières de chien'. But the dog continued to follow them home where, under Faust's spell, he first changes into a monster and then reveals that he is in fact the Devil.
Redon executed a lithograph illustrating another episode of the story of Faust in 1894: Hantise depicting Marguerite walking with Mephistopheles (Mellerio 128).