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Henri Fantin-Latour was a passionate lover of music, especially the German composer Richard Wagner and the French composer, Hector Berlioz (Duick 210). The Damnation of Faust is one of the many lithographs that Fantin-Latour completed based on scenes from his favourite operas. This particular lithograph is an illustration from the final scene of Berlioz’s opera La Damnation de Faust first played at the Opéra-Comique in 1846. Berlioz based his opera La Damnation de Faust on the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe play Faust from 1806. The scene illustrated by Fantin-Latour is one of the closing moments of the opera and marks one of the many breaks that Berlioz made from Goethe’s version of the classic tale. In Berlioz’s opera, Mephistopheles tricks Faust into his eventual damnation through his love for the fair maiden Marguerite. By the end of Goethe’s play and Berlioz’s opera, this love has condemned Marguerite to jail after accidentally killing her mother with a sleeping potion administered only to allow Marguerite the chance to meet with Faust. Marguerite is jailed and condemned to death the following morning. In Goethe’s play, Marguerite is saved by God himself but in Berlioz’s opera Faust makes a deal with the devil and agrees to give Mephistopheles his soul in exchange for saving his true love. Fantin-Latour depicts the moment that Marguerite ascends to heaven while being watched in the shadowy corner by the already damned Faust who was instantly transported to hell after agreeing to Mephistopheles’ dark bargain. Top of the print reads “salon de 1888” . Sources: Druick, Douglas and Michel Hoog. Fantin-Latour. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1983. The Metropolitan Opera. The Damnation of Faust.