A narrow window in the the far right corner creates the only source of light shed on this macabre scene where three witches are occupied with a ritual. They appear to be witches in a modest barn with achemist symbols of witchery like a cauldron, a black crow, a chicken, a cat, a snake and a horseshoe. The snake (of Paradise) even flees away from the scene......the horseshoe has been left and neglected on the floor....all hope is gone.
While following evening classes at the drawing society Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, August Allebé studied at the Antwerp Academy, the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam (Royal Academy of Arts of Amsterdam) and the École des Beaux-Arts Paris. He received lessons from Petrus Franciscus Greive, Adolphe Mouilleron, Charles Rochussen and Louis Royer and was a member of Arti et Amicitiae and the Société Royale Belge des Aquarellistes.
Allebé later was appointed at the Koninklijke Academie it's sucsessor the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam (State Academy of Arts Amsterdam), first as professor (1870) and later between 1880 and 1906 as director. As a teacher he influenced a great number of artists among which are Lissy Ansingh, Floris Arntzenius, George Hendrik Breitner, Antoon Derkinderen, Leo Gestel, Piet van der Hem, Richard Roland Holst, Isaac Israels, Jan Sluijters, Willem Bastiaan Tholen, Jan Toorop, Jan Veth, Jan Voerman, Willem Witsen and numerous orhers.
Allebé's early works are romantic and his later style developed into realist and impressionist style, the latter of which he was an important initiator and promotor. Aside from this he had important roles in the artist's society St. Lucas and the Amsterdamse Joffers.
Drawings on the subject of Sorcery are of the greatest scarcity in his oeuvre.
