The Proposal

In the first catalogue of Bouguereau's work, published in 1885, this work is entitled Seduction. It has also been known as The Persuasion of Marguerite and Faust and Marguerite, a subject that was frequently depicted in the nineteenth century. However, any connection between the painting and Goethe's dramatic poem is purely speculative and must have resulted from the vaguely sixteenth-century German appearance of the setting and costumes. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)