This composition created in 1829 is cartoon like in its form. The nude man on the right however, appears to resemble a statuesque figure. The way in which the muscular detail on the body has been depicted is in my opinion reminiscent of a classical statue. The way in which the two cats are depicted also differs. Only one is looking at the decapitated man, whereas the other is facing the opposite direction. The whole composition is bizarre, and its subjects are distinctively different from each other. Despite this, these ‘diverse elements’ converge to create a grotesquely weird scene.

In this 1827/33 composition, the boundaries between what is fiction and what is reality are blurred. To begin with, the whole scene has been dreamt up by the artist, but it depicts the dreaming of a real literary source. Not only is the subject dreaming of the play Faust, but the subject is Faust in the guise of the artist. By placing himself in the position of being the main subject, Holst captures on canvas his own ‘real’ persona in a mixed up dream like situation suspended between his dream and the literary creation of Faust seen from through the eyes of Faust, who in the picture is smoking opium.

Faust in his Study

The text on the frontispiece reads: ‘By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs … I rushed out of the room’. The depiction of the medieval setting of Frankenstein and the monster in the study is very similar to his earlier illustration of Faust in his Study