Mephistopheles Flying, from Faust
Eugène Delacroix
1828
- Medium
- Lithograph in black on white wove paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 27 × 23 cm (10 11/16 × 9 1/16 in.); Sheet: 42.9 × 29 cm (16 15/16 × 11 7/16 in.)
- Genre
- lithograph
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
printprints and drawingpaper (fiber product)lithograph
About
This nightime scene depicts the demon Mephistopheles flying above a cityscape. The stark contrasts of light and dark emphasize his ghoulish form, accentuated with sharp claws and toenails. This lithograph is the prologue to Eugène Delacroix’s series illustrating key episodes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama Faust. An ambitious German scholar, Faust makes a deal with Mephistopheles to gain fame and fortune but, in return, Faust loses his soul and morality.
