Part of the Cathedral, Rouen

The imposing façade of the French Gothic cathedral of Rouen has long captivated artists. Specializing in topographical views of European towns, the 19th-century British watercolorist Samuel Prout sought out the subject for his work, rendering the building from a variety of angles. Here, as the title suggests, the artist depicts only a portion of the edifice, partially glimpsed through an ornately sculpted medieval portal. Realizing the marketability of picturesque travel imagery of this kind, Prout was among the first generations of British artists to make extensive use of the medium of lithography, which allowed for the relatively inexpensive reproduction of an artist’s work.