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Two buildings nearly meet on either side of a more distant white cathedral tower in this loosely rendered watercolor drawing. The building to the right takes up two-thirds of the composition, and has a tall, pale brown roof, round-topped arches, and a section with gray engaged columns and pillars. The bottom zone is loosely sketched in with a few faint gray lines. Farthest from us, the white tower between the other two buildings has four levels of pointed arches. A spire extends from the right front corner of the tower, and the top edge of the entire structure is lined in spiky ornamentation. The third building, close to the left edge of the sheet, is a two-story wood structure with a tiled roof. The sky is painted ice blue in the narrow slivers between the buildings with some blank areas suggesting streaks of clouds. Cursive writing in graphite along the right edge of the paper reads, “Stairs and columns of Gothic arch Building.”

John Ruskin

Tower of the Cathedral at Sens, c. 1845

Not on View

Medium

pen and brown ink, brush and black ink, black chalk, and watercolor over graphite on brown paper

Dimensions

sheet: 40.7 x 30.6 cm (16 x 12 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of William B. O'Neal

Accession Number

1987.73.2

Artists / Makers

John Ruskin (artist) British, 1819 - 1900

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right partial inscription in graphite: Stairs / and / columns / of Gothic / arch / Building

Provenance

Professor William B. O'Neal [1907-1994], Charlottesville, VA, by 1971; gift 1987 to the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

O'Neal, William B., Professor

Exhibition History

1971: Master Drawings from the O'Neal Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond and tour, 1971-1972

1993: Drawings from the O'Neal Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1993, no. 50.

1996: Drawings from the O'Neal Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Athens, 4 May-16 June, 1996.

Bibliography

1993: NGA O'Neal 1993, ex 50.