M. Vitet divides Scheffer's artistic life into three portions: that in
which he painted subjects from simple life; that devoted to poetic
subjects; and the last, or distinctively religious period. These
divisions cannot, of course, be very sharply drawn, but may help us to
understand the progress of his mind; and "Les Femmes Suliotes" will mark
the transition from the first to the second period. Turning from the
simple scenes of domestic sorrow, he now sought inspiration in
literature. The vigorous and hearty Northern Muse especially won his
favor; yet the greatest Italian poet was also his earnest study. Goethe,
Schiller, Byron, Dante, all furnished subjects for his pencil. The story
of Faust and Margaret took such hold of his imagination that it pursued
him for nearly thirty years. Their forms appeared before him in new
attitudes and situations almost to his last hour, so that, in the midst
of his labors on religious pictures, he seized his pencils to paint yet
another Faust, another Margaret. Nor can we wonder at this absorbing
interest, when we reflect on the profound significance and touching
pathos of this theme, which may wear a hundred faces, and touch every
chord of the human heart. It is intellect and passion, in contrast with
innocence and faith; it is natural and spontaneous love, thwarted by
convention and circumstance; it is condemnation before men, and
forgiveness before God; it is the ideal and the worldly; it is an
epitome of human life,--love, joy, sorrow, sin,--birth, life, death, and
the sure hope of resurrection. How pregnant with expression was it to a
mind like Scheffer's, where the intellectual, the affectional, and the
spiritual natures were so nicely blended! He first painted "Margaret at
her Wheel," in 1831,--accompanied by a "Faust tormented by Doubt." These
were two simple heads, each by itself, like a portrait, but with all the
fine perception of character which constitutes an ideal work. Next he
painted "Margaret at Church." Here other figures fill up the canvas; but
the touching expression of the young girl, whose soul is just beginning