In 1901, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel made a watercolor drawing titled “The Demon Downcast”. This is one of the last preparatory sketches for the painting, which he was working on between 1901 and 1902.

The drawing depicts the Demon who was exiled into an abyss of rocks. His wings are broken, and his frail body is contorted with pain; one arm is placed behind his head, and the other lies flat on the stones.

The Demon is shown in the profile. His mouth is stubbornly pursed up, there is wounded pride and pain in his eyes, and a tear rolls down his cheek leaving behind a trace of suffering. The image is performed in calm colors. In the lower-left corner, the artist put his signature “Vrubel”. The drawing is pasted on a sheet of cardboard.

The artist chose a mountainous area at sunset as the background. Vladimir von Meck recalled,

Once, Mikhail Vrubel wrote a surprisingly unexpected note to von Meck asking him to send photographs of the Caucasus Mountains, saying

That same night, he added pearl peaks behind the Demon’s figure. Subsequently, the finished painting was acquired by Vladimir von Meck.

Vrubel made changes to the image of the Demon numerous times after he had completed the work. In early 1902, “The Demon Downcast” was brought from Moscow to an exhibition organized by the World of Art movement based in Saint Petersburg.

While the exhibition was held, Mikhail Vrubel came to his painting every morning, and until noon, while there were few visitors, he would make changes by redrawing the Demon, wiping away and applying paints, and changing the figure’s pose and the background.

Alexandre Benois, who had observed Vrubel’s attempts to perfect the finished painting, wrote: