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The Abbatial House, Abbey of St. Ouen, Rouen

1824–31
Not on view
On three trips to Normandy between 1817 and 1820 Cotman planned a series of etchings focused on French medieval architecture. His imaginative reconstruction of the Abbey of St. Ouen, which had been demolished in 1815–16 to enlarge Rouen’s town square, was likely stimulated by local distress over that loss. He transformed what had been an enclosed courtyard into a garden facade, enlivening the scene with figures in seventeenth-century costume. The imagery derives from engravings in J. F. de Pommeraye’s Histoire de l’Abbaye Royale de St. Ouen (1662), owned by Cotman’s English patron, Dawson Turner. Declaring the Abbey of St. Ouen "the best subject I ever touched on," Cotman exhibited four versions of it between 1824 and 1831; this one likely dates late in the series.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Abbatial House, Abbey of St. Ouen, Rouen
  • Artist: John Sell Cotman (British, Norwich 1782–1842 London)
  • Date: 1824–31
  • Medium: Graphite and watercolor, heightened with gouache (bodycolor) and with scratching out
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 21 x 28 3/4 in. (53.4 x 73.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013
  • Object Number: 2013.109
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey
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The Lake of Zug, Joseph Mallord William Turner British, Watercolor and bodycolor (gouache) with reductive techniques over graphite
The Lake of Zug
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The east end of Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, John Sell Cotman British, Watercolor and graphite with reductive techniques
The east end of Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire
John Sell Cotman
1803
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