The West Porch of Rouen Cathedral

Details

Date: unknown date
Dimensions: 76.2 x 62.3
Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil, sepia and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: D237
Attributed artist: Ruskin, John, 1819, 1900
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1961

This work has been attributed to the artist, critic and thinker John Ruskin, although it is unsigned. Ruskin first saw Rouen in 1835 and wrote of the west porch of the cathedral in his book The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) as ‘the most exquisite piece of pure flamboyant work existing’. Morris was also impressed by this building, writing ‘no words can tell you how its mingled beauty, history and romance took hold of me’.