Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1827–1828. The subject is taken from Goethe’s 'Faust' I (1808). Faust, in a black gown and red hose, is confronted for the first time by the demon Mephistopheles disguised as a travelling scholar. The painting is probably later than the lithograph of the same subject produced as part of a series of illustrations to Faust which Delacroix began in 1825. There are two drawings of the composition, probably preparatory studies for the lithograph, in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, and the Pierpont Morgan Library (Thaw Collection), New York.