Gothic Church Behind an Oak Grove with Tombs
Medium
Lithograph in black ink with touches of opaque white watercolor on brown wove paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 48.2 × 34.2 cm (19 × 13 1/2 in.); Sheet: 52.3 × 38.2 cm (20 5/8 × 15 1/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
147622
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Architect, painter, and printmaker Karl Friedrich Schinkel understood Gothic architecture as a fusion between universal Christianity and German genius. The combination here of vernacular Gothic architecture and a grand oak tree symbolizing Teutonic strength—as well as the medium of lithography itself, which had recently been invented in Munich by Alois Senefelder—infuses the print with a particularly nationalistic significance. This patriotism is all the more pointed given Germany’s military def...
About the Artist
Karl Friedrich Schinkel · 1781–1841
German architect.