Lot 26: f - THOMAS JONES BARKER 1815-1882 MARGARET AT THE CATHEDRAL, FAUST

signed with the monogram and dated l.r.: 1866; signed and inscribed with the artist's address, the title of the picture and an inscription from Goethe's Faust on an old label attached to the stretcher.

oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

Royal Academy, 1866, no. 430 as 'Margaret at the Cathedral - the Whispering of the Evil Spirit, "Woe! Ah, Woe, etc." '
CATALOGUE NOTE

Barker's painting depicts the heroine Margaret (also known as Gretchen) from Goethe's Faust. After her brother Valentin is slain by Faust and Mephistopheles, Margaret flees to the cathedral for refuge, consumed by fear, shame and guilt. With his dying breath Valentin cursed his sister, renouncing her as a harlot and the cause of his death, having allowed herself to be seduced by Faust. In Barker's painting the ominous shadow of evil creeps across the wall behind the trembling Margaret as she kneels prostrate in the church. He whispers into her ear, mocking her terror as the choir sings the Dies Irae (Dance of Death) the Latin hymn describing the Day of Judgement.

Dies iræ, dies illa,
Solvet sæclum in favila
Judex ergo cum sedebit,
Quidquid latet adparebit, Nil inultum remanebit
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus?
Cum vix justus sit securus What shall I, a wretch, say?

Day of wrath, day of wrath,
On that day when the world shall dissolve in ashes
So when the judge takes his seat, Whatever has been hidden will appear, Nothing shall remain unpunished
Who shall I ask to plead for me, When scarcely the righteous shall be safe?

Thomas Jones Barker had painted another scene from Faust in 1846 for the British Institution exhibition, entitled Faust and Margaret, with the accompanying Margaret's lines; 'Tis he! 'tis he! where now is all my pain, The anguish of the dungeon and the chain. 'Tis thou! thou com'st to rescue me!'. This picture (unlocated) illustrated a later incident in the story as Faust liberates Margaret from imprisonment.

The same scene was the subject of various early drawings by Rossetti from 1848 (Tate and private collection) and endured as a popular subject throughout the nineteenth century. Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Simeon Solomon also painted early illustrations of the scene and as late as 1919, the Pre-Raphaelite follower Frank Cadogan Cowper painted the same incident.

102 by 76 cm., 40 by 30 in.