Cleveland Museum of Art

Interior of a Cathedral

Samuel Prout

Date

c. 1820s

Medium

gray and brown wash with point of brush and pen and brown ink with watercolor heightened with gouache

Culture

England, 19th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Samuel Prout’s watercolors of picturesque views and architectural marvels of Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland attracted a wide audience, helped inspire travel, and shaped the English perception of Continental Europe. The influential critic John Ruskin became a close friend, neighbor, and great supporter of the artist, declaring in the Art Journal in 1849 that no other artist expressed architectural detail in more "splendid accumulation" or "patient love" than Prout. Rather than showing a specific church, this drawing seems to depict an amalgamation of Gothic architecture, capturing a mood and not a particular place.

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