Cologne Cathedral

Ross Turner’s 'Cologne Cathedral' holds a special place in the history of the Union League
Club’s art collection. It was acquired in 1886 with an emphasis on being the first acquisition with
a primarily aesthetic value. The donor, Club member, J.M. Thatcher commissioned this grand
work.Thatcher’s interest in Cologne Cathedral may have been peaked by its recent completion.
Constructed in the French Gothic style, construction had started in 1248 but ceased in the 16th
century. Work resumed in 1842 during the Gothic Revival movement. It was the largest Gothic
church in Northern Europe and the tallest structure built during the Middle Ages.

This is a somewhat romanticized depiction done in a watercolor medium. The structure of the
cathedral is placed well within the frame of the composition. Its emphasis is the soaring
grandeur juxtaposing the smaller houses that huddle in the background. Diminutive figures can
be seen near the cathedral’s open doors. Ecclesiastes in gray and white gowns with red stoles,
golden canopies, and banners are described with spots of bright color which are in contrast to
the graystone facade of the building itself. A woman with two children is in the middle ground
which adds to the sense of scale by which to access the tower’s height.Turner approached his
medium in a conservative manner. Turner drew as well as painted with watercolor in order to
preserve the cathedral’s complex surfaces. Painted in the English watercolor tradition, the
painting preserves the architectural detail of the building. Simultaneously, Turner’s somewhat
impressionistic painting of the figures in the distance may reflect the practice he learned from
his teacher, Whistler. Turner was a teacher of watercolor at his studio and at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Normal School. He wrote an important manual,
On the Use of Watercolors for Beginners, published in 1886, which was about watercolor
technique. Turner also pioneered the movement for the decoration of schoolrooms. Turner
executed oils as well as he did watercolors and painted landscapes, figurals, and illustrations.