Interior of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (German, 1781–1841)

c. 1810

Medium
lithograph
Classification
Print
Dimensions
Sheet: 46.2 x 31.5 cm (18 3/16 x 12 3/8 in.); Image: 24 x 15.8 cm (9 7/16 x 6 1/4 in.)
Culture
Germany, 19th century
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
Credit line
John L. Severance Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

Renowned as an architect and an imaginative draftsman and painter, Schinkel was an important early practitioner of lithography, a technique invented at the end of the 18th century in Germany. Schinkel experimented with this new medium in creative ways, searching for a means to achieve tone. In order to simulate the effect of bright light illuminating the interior of Saint Stephen's Cathedral, he covered the surface of the stone with lithographic ink and then scratched out the design with a sharp tool. One of only a few impressions of this print, Interior of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna exemplifies the museum's extensive early lithography collection.