Drawing Worlds: Viollet-le-Duc at Bard Graduate Center

The Temple of Neptune, Paestum, 1836, graphite, ink, and
wash on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

My recent visit to Viollet-le-Duc Drawing Worlds at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery was both inspiring and deeply absorbing. On view only through May 24th, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter the extraordinary imagination and precision of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879), whose drawings, restorations, and theories reshaped the understanding of Gothic architecture in the modern era. With nearly 200 works on view, many rarely seen in the United States, the exhibition illustrates how drawing became for him not merely a technical exercise, but a way of thinking through history, nature, and design.

From cathedral studies and Alpine landscapes to visionary restorations and fantastical architectural forms, the works feel remarkably alive and contemporary. It was a great pleasure to spend time with these drawings and ideas, and to experience the enduring power of an artist who believed that the past could still illuminate the present.

(L) Messina Cathedral, detail of the painted timber rafters, June 22, 1836, graphite, ink, watercolor, gold, and gouache on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Violet-le-Duc. (R) Palatine Chapel, Palermo, interior, April 23, 1836, watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Arch of Trajan, Benevento, 1825, pen and watercolor
on paper, Henri Labrouste (French, 1801-1875)

Temple of Juno Lacinia, Agrigento, May 24, 1837, graphite
on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Pompeii, a section of one of the Championnet houses in its current state,
1828, ink, wash, graphite, and watercolor on paper, mounted
on board, Léon Vaudoyer (French, 1803-1872)

Palermo Cathedral, April-May 1836, graphite and
watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Violet-le-Duc

Upper crater of Mount Etna, June 11, 1856, graphite, watercolor,
and gouache on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

View of the Azun Valley from the Pourgue Mountain, Hautes-Pyrénées, July 11, 1833, watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

View of Puy de Dôme from the Puy Pariou, July 25, 1831,
graphite on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Model of the spire of Notre-Dame de Paris, ca. 1858, wood and
paint, Auguste Bellu (French, 1796-1862; carpenter), after
a design by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

"Sculpture" section of Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XI au XVI siècle (Systematic dictionary of French architecture from the eleventh to the sixteenth century), vol. 8, 118-19, Paris: A. Morel et Cie, 1866, printed book, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. The placard reads: "In this entry of his Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture, Viollet-le-Duc offers a racialized reading of medieval sculpture. Comparing two sculpted heads from church portals—one identified as Gallic or Celtic (on the left), the other as Merovingian or Frankish (on the right)—he interprets their features as evidence of distinct racial identities. The Gallic figure, he writes, appears more refined and noble; the Merovingian, though heavier, shows a self-assured dominance. For Viollet-le-Duc, these sculpted faces revealed not just style but deeper historical meaning. Such contrasts between Gallic and Frankish 'races' became particularly topical after the Prussian army defeated French forces in the war of 1870."

(Left and below) Physiognomic studies from a scrapbook of preparatory sketches and first run woodcuts for Histoire de l'habitation humaine depuis les temps préhistoriques jusqu'à nos jours (The Habitations of Man in All Ages; Paris: J. Hetzel, 1875), undated paper and tracing paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. (R) Histoire de l'habitation humaine depuis les temps préhistoriques jusqu'à nos jours (The Habitations of Man in All Ages) Paris: 1. Hetzel, 1875, printed book, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

The placard reads: "These physiognomic studies-some of them preparatory sketches for woodcut illustrations in Histoire de l'habitation humaine (The Habitations of Man in All Ages, 1875)-reflect Viollet-le-Duc's complicity with the visual language of nineteenth-century racist anthropology. His caricature-like studies morphing human heads into primate profiles explore visual links between the features of what were then considered 'lower' human types and those of primates— a notion rooted in deeply problematic theories of racial hierarchy that circulated widely in the period. While these drawings reflect the intellectual climate of their time, they also offer an opportunity to reflect critically on how racialized ways of seeing were constructed, naturalized, and reproduced through art and illustration."

Le refuge de montagne (The mountain refuge), July 1871,
watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Fictional rendition of the mountain refuge at Nant Borrant, July 1874,
graphite and gouache on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

(L) Viollet-le-Duc in his study, ca. 1850, plaster, Adolphe Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume (French, 1816-1892). (R) Desk from the office of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc on rue Condorcet, Paris, after 1862, oak

(L) Monstrance, ca. 1900, silver gilt, Maurice Poussielgue-Rusand (French, 1861-1933), from a design by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. (R) Unlabeled statuette of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Château de Pierrefonds, bird's-eye view of the castle, partially restored,
1858, ink and watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

(L) Pyrenees, pine forest in the Marcadan Valley, 1833, ink and wash on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. (R) Preparatory drawing for "Le Beffroi" (The belfry) in Histoire d'une forteresse (History of a fortress; Paris: J. Hetzel, 1874), fig. 47, watercolor with gouache on paper 

Château de Pierrefonds, exterior elevation of the south façade,
1858, ink and watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

(L) Château de Pierrefonds, painted decor for the chimney overmantel in the empress's bedroom, 1866, ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper, Maurice Ouradou (French, 1822-1884), from a design by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. (R) "Tournoyeur, Milieu du XVe siècle" (Mid-fifteenth-century tourney participant) in Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de l'époque carlovingienne à la Renaissance (Systematic dictionary of French furniture from the Carolingian era to the Renaissance), vol. 2 (Paris: A. Morel, 1871), plate 53, 1871, lithograph, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

La Grande Scheidegg, 1879, graphite and gouache on paper,
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Pyrenees, view of the Marboré Peak, above Gèvre, July 1833,
watercolor on paper, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Solar eclipse, undated, wash and gouache on paper