The Gothic revival in England and America - Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut - Brief Article

Magazine Antiques, May, 2000 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Like nearly all stylistic reinterpretations, the Gothic revival movement started with architecture, and soon houses, churches, museums, hospitals, prisons, and other civic structures featured pointed arches, turrets, towers, and crenellations reminiscent of their medieval ancestors. These bold new exteriors required appropriate interiors, so architects and designers created everything from chairs and tables to drinking vessels and andirons in this flamboyant and romantic style. For a variety of reasons, the nineteenth-century eye precluded a slavish imitation of the medieval Gothic, and an imaginative new style soon suffused the cities and countryside of England, where the Gothic revival held sway, as well as the United States, where it was enthusiastically embraced.

An exhibition that chronicles the development of the style in England and its flowering in the United States is on view until July 30 at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven. It is entitled Modem Gothic: The Revival of Medieval An, and comprises some one hundred works, including paintings, sculpture, architectural drawings, furniture, ceramics, silver and other metals, and wallpaper:

Yale is ideally suited for this exhibition, since the college campus is perhaps the quintessential expression of the Gothic revival style in American architecture. A particularly welcome feature of this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue is the inclusion of walking tours at Yale and in New Haven and driving tours further afield in New England. These highlight the numerous surviving Gothic revival buildings and other monuments, as well as affording a series of enjoyable and educational summer excursions.

As Derek D. Churchill, a co-curator of the exhibition and co-author of the catalogue, so ably points out about the English Gothic: "Ironically, this so-called revival may not even have been a proper revival at all, since the construction of Gothic buildings apparently never abated between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century. Architectural historians usually account for this continuity by distinguishing between a Gothic 'Survival'--the vestigial products of centuries-old medieval tradition of building--and a conscious revival of old forms beginning in the mid-eighteenth century." Nevertheless, England was the undisputed leader in the Gothic revival style, which was reflected in literature and other artistic disciplines.

In the United States the Gothic style flourished between about 1830 and 1875 as British architects such as Richard Upjohn and Frank Wills moved here, and influential English design books and other writings by prominent figures such as A.W N. Pugin and John Claudius Loudon reached our shores. American exponents of the style, such as A. J. Davis and A. J. Downing (both of whom wrote important books on the subject), readily took up the cause. The archetypal castle Lyndhurst (originally called Knoll) in Tarrytown, New York, was designed by Davis in 1838 and doubled in size, also under Davis, in 1865. It contains many furnishings designed by him and remains, inside and out, one of the purest expressions of the Gothic style in the United States.

While the Gothic was recommended for the entire house, most homeowners already possessed an assortment of furnishings and did not follow this edict to the letter. Most often only the public rooms, particularly dining rooms, entrance halls, libraries, and parlors, were fitted out with Gothic furnishings. Today, chairs, dining tables, and bookcases are the forms most commonly found in this style. Since the dining room was a popular place for Gothic things, silver, glass, and ceramics in that style, both American and English, adorned the table and sideboard. Examples of such pieces are included in the fascinating assemblage of objects in this exhibition.

The catalogue contains essays by Churchill and Susan B. Matheson and is published by the Yale University Art Gallery, from which it may be obtained by telephoning 203-432-0620.