Gothic Cathedral Behind a Pond with Swans
1810/15
Medium
Pen and brush and brown wash, with brush and brown wash and watercolor, over graphite, on cream wove paper
Dimensions
24.4 × 18.5 cm (9 5/8 × 7 5/16 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
144370
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Faced with a dearth of architectural commissions in French-occupied Berlin after 1806, the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel produced depictions of imagined architecture. Through these nostalgic concoctions Schinkel championed the Germanic Middle Ages by reviving a Gothic style of architecture over his more customary Neoclassical mode. Taking advantage of national sentiment, he found a market of buyers who longed for images of a simpler time. Schinkel’s own inscription from one of his contempora...
About the Artist
Karl Friedrich Schinkel · 1781–1841
German architect.