Design for Oak Carving, from the Fireplace, Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster
1820–71
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 10 11/16 x 7 3/8 in. (27.1 x 18.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966
Accession Number
66.562.17
Art Historical Context
Step into the intricate world of 19th-century British architectural design with Charles James Richardson's *Design for Oak Carving, the Fireplace, Jerusalem Chamber Westminster*. Created between 1820 and 1871, this delicate watercolor on paper captures a proposed ornamental carving for the historic Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster Abbey's Deanery—a room steeped in legend as the deathbed of King Henry IV and a key setting in John Bunyan's *Pilgrim's Progress*. Richardson, a prolific architect and draftsman, specialized in Gothic Revival elements, blending historical reverence with Victorian cra...