The Buttresses of Beauvais Cathedral

Samuel V. Chamberlain

"The Buttresses..." was one of three etchings that won Chamberlain a First Honorable Mention at the 1925 Paris Salon. This image is reproduced in full pages in a number of books cataloging Chamberlain's printmaking. It was reproduced in the periodical 'The American Architect' on August 12, 1925, plate 212.

Only Chamberlain's seventh etching, C.E. Goodspeed, his dealer in Boston noted in a 1927 catalog: "from the sometimes crude, withal vigorous treatment that marked the first etchings of 1925, there evolved a more refined though no less virile manner of handling which indicated the style Chamberlain has since established in such plates as 'The Buttresses of Beauvais Cathedral'..."

The Cathedral of Saint Pierre, was begun in Beauvais in Northern France in 1225 and, with various setbacks, continued until 1573. Its façades, especially that on the south, exhibit all the richness of the late Gothic style. Its interior has the tallest vault in the world.