Strasbourg Cathedral

Marius Bauer (1867 - 1932), 1890-1891

chalk on paper, 86 cm x 70 cm
The Mesdag Collection, The Hague

The Dutch artist Marius Bauer was an avid traveller. He made this drawing in Strasbourg. He had a distinctive drawing style, with densely placed lines, which here aptly evokes the cathedral’s gloomy interior.

Writing for the Algemeen Handelsblad a journalist praised the drawing as follows: ‘It is a shining Hallelujah in the dark tumult of the sons of men (…).’

Bauer often drew church interiors. Mesdag owned six works by him, including a drawing of the interior of Hagia Sophia in what was Constantinople (now Istanbul).