Salvador Dalí
Vignettes of Faust, Faust & Marguerite, 1968.
Faust et Marguerite, Prestel 311.
Original drypoint etching with hand-coloring on archival paper.
Hand-signed and numbered in the lower margins.

Faust and Marguerite embody the central emotional tragedy of Goethe’s drama: desire reaching toward innocence and ultimately destroying it. Dalí captures their relationship as a dream of attraction, vulnerability, and fate.
In the “Walpurgis Night”, brilliantly illustrated by Dalí, the various scenes appear within a magic circle, in a chiaroscuro whose acme is most likely the stunning portrait of “Faust Reading”, evocative of Rembrandt’s etchings. Alchemical signs, formed by Dali’s inverted signature, add an esoteric dimension to this exceptional interpretation of Goethe’s “Faust”.

Faust: Suite of 21 original etchings with roulette, ruby, and diamond, published in 1968-1969. 15 x 11 inches, including 10 vignettes.

Salvador Dali – The Pierre Argillet Collection, Off The Wall Gallery, Houston, Texas.