Charles Goeller’s Paradise Lost, But His Doom (c. 1940) is a haunting, meticulously rendered illustration of John Milton’s epic that showcases the artist’s trademark precision and chiaroscuro technique. In this conte crayon drawing, Goeller places himself in the role of Lucifer, confronting the viewer with a solitary, shadow-engulfed figure whose downward gaze and stark contrast of light and dark evoke both the fallen angel’s defiance and his irrevocable fate. The work’s eerie stillness, crisp contours, and psychological intensity reflect not only Goeller’s technical mastery but also a broader mood of existential isolation and tension characteristic of his early 1940s output, a period marked by global upheaval and personal introspection.