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Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Gothic Cathedral Behind a Pond with Swans

1810/15
Pen and brush and brown wash, with brush and brown wash and watercolor, over graphite, on cream wove paper
24.4 × 18.5 cm (9.6 × 7.3 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

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 contemporary lithographs could describe this work: an “attempt to express the lovely nostalgic sadness that fills the heart when the sound of the service emanates from the church.”

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