Cathédrale de Tours — Chappuy

A finely worked hand-coloured lithograph of the Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours, a flowering of French Gothic ecclesiastical design.

Original title: Cathédrale de Tours. Drawn by Chappuy; engraved by Perrier and Gauchard. From Voyage Pittoresque de la France. Paris, c. 1780.

Jean-Benjamin de La Borde's Voyage Pittoresque de la France (1781–1796) celebrated the kingdom's architectural patrimony at the close of the ancien régime. Begun in the thirteenth century and crowned with its richly traceried west front in the fifteenth, Saint-Gatien embodies the long arc of French Gothic from Rayonnant to Flamboyant — a sequence the engraver renders with antiquarian precision.

Hand-coloured lithograph. Sheet approximately 59.5 × 43.1 cm. Very Good condition with minor age toning and edge wear.