The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
French Church Series No. 41: Aspiration, La Madeleine, Verneuil-Sur-Avre
1939
(American, 1887–1953)
Sheet: 47.5 x 31.2 cm (18 11/16 x 12 5/16 in.); Platemark: 39.5 x 25.3 cm (15 9/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Courtesy of John Taylor Arms/© Suzanne Arms Hawkins
Catalogue raisonné: Fletcher 329
Location: not on view
Description
In this portrait of La Madeleine there are no extraneous motifs from the daily life of the secular world to detract attention from the almost hallucinatory clarity and precision with which the church is delineated. The flamboyant Gothic tower with its octagonal lantern and Renaissance porch are drawn with absolute accuracy. Each stone, sprocket, lacelike line of tracery, and statue are a testament to Arms’s infinite patience using linework so fine that much is visible only with magnification (magnifying glasses are available in both galleries). Arms explains that he attempted to “record mass and detail, textures and chiaroscuro, as I have seen them . . . to state, in terms as lucid, comprehensive, and intelligible as lay within my power, exactly what moved me so deeply.”- Modern Gothic: The Etchings of John Taylor Arms. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9-September 30, 2012).
- {{cite web|title=French Church Series No. 41: Aspiration, La Madeleine, Verneuil-Sur-Avre|url=false|author=John Taylor Arms|year=1939|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.211