Scene upon Leaving the Church Pen and grey ink on thin vellum
(watermark: J Whatman 1805) Inv. No. 336 37.7 × 38.6 cm Peter
Cornelius’s Faust drawings are among the most typical examples
of Nazarene draughtsmanship. The artist started on the cycle in
1810 in Frankfurt am Main, two years after the publication of
Goethe’s drama, but only completed it in Rome in 1816. The
drawings, twelve in all, large in scale and executed in pen and
ink, were intended from the outset as designs for engravings to
be published as a series of Illustrations to Goethe’s Faust. The
first edition of the copper engravings – executed by Ferdinand
Ruscheweyh – was produced by Johann Friedrich Wenner in
Frankfurt in 1816. In 1836, after the publisher’s death, the
drawings passed into the possession of the Städel from his
estate. When Cornelius arrived in Rome towards the end of 1811
and joined the Nazarenes, he was already able to show his fellow
artists some of his Faust drawings. These included the fifth in
the series, Scene upon Leavi