Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin

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Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, about 1840

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (born March 1, 1812 in London , † September 14, 1852 in Ramsgate ) was an English architect and architectural theorist. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the Gothic Revival .

Life

"The present revival of Christian architecture", frontispiece from An apology for the revival of Christian Architecture , 1843
Cabinet designed by Augustus Pugin around 1847

Pugin was the son of the architect and architectural theorist Augustus Charles Pugin (1762-1832), who immigrated from France and designed , among other things, details in the Gothic style for John Nash . His own son, Edward Welby Pugin (1834–1875), was also an architect.

Augustus Welby Pugin received his elementary education as a day student at Christ's Hospital , better known as the Blue-Coat School . From an early age he took a place among his father's students and accompanied him to Normandy , among other places , to study Gothic architecture. He also helped his father create a variety of Gothic architecture and decor studies.

Very early on, Pugin showed an amazing talent for drawing and designing Gothic forms. At the age of 15 he was already working for the London company Morchel & Seddon and designed for this Gothic-style furniture to decorate Windsor Castle . At the same time he was freelance making plans for furniture and metalwork for other London companies. At 17, Pugin started his own small business supplying furniture and decorative carvings for interior decoration. After initial success, however, he had to close it again in 1831. Pugin had a great passion for the theater and was also active as a set designer for the Covent Garden Theater , namely for Sir Walter Scott's ballet adaptation of "Kenilworth".

In 1833 he worked with Sir Charles Barry on the design of King Edward's School , Birmingham . This business connection culminated in 1835/36 in the activity as co-designer of the new building of the Houses of Parliament , which Barry had been entrusted. The year 1835 was a turning point in Pugin's career anyway. His book, Gothic Furniture in the Style of the Fifteenth Century , which provided a novel understanding of the medieval design technique, was published. In the same year he bought a small piece of land in Laverstock, near Salisbury , on which he built a 15th century house for himself and his family at St. Marie's Grange , and he converted what was more important to him to Roman -Catholic Faith .

Due to his early death, his active creative period as an architect was only a little over ten years.

Work and professional career

St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney

Pugin was among the most prominent proponents of the Gothic revival in England. The classicism still prevalent at the time was viewed by him as unworthy of a Christian country. With the Gothic Revival , whose style he saw as Christian, he linked the hope of a religious renewal. He defended these views in his writings ardently and instructively, and he is therefore regarded as a predecessor of the theories of John Ruskin . His font The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture from 1841 was groundbreaking for the Gothic Revival. In contrast to the vehemence of his theories, however, his architectural style, designed with a light hand, is generally viewed as rather cool.

Pugin's main client with over 60 church buildings was the Catholic Church, for which he also made the best of his designs. These included St. George's Cathedral in the London Borough of Southwark (1841-1848), Nottingham Cathedral (1844), Newcastle upon Tyne Cathedral (1844), St. Augustine's Church in Ramsgate (1851) as well in Ireland the Saint Aidan's Cathedral of Enniscorthy (1843–1849) and the Cathedral of Mary of Killarney (1840–1855).

St. Chads Cathedral, Birmingham, built between 1839 and 1841 according to plans by Augustus Pugin.

His most important church buildings include the Roman Catholic St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, the first cathedral built in England since the Reformation . From the outside, St. Chad's presents itself as a simple brick building with house frames for the windows and doors and a double tower facade; an originally planned higher crossing tower, which gave the building an optical balance, was unfortunately not implemented. (A picture of the originally planned building can be found on the frontispiece of his text An apology for the revival , shown there as the only double-tower church.) Inside, the three-aisled hall church shows a rich interior design typical of Pugin, this was especially true for the no longer in St. Chad's rood screen .

Between 1837 and 1840, Pugin's architectural work became more and more popular. In 1837 he made the acquaintance of authorities at St. Mary's College , Oscott, who commissioned him to complete the new chapel and decorate the new college. For the chapel, Pugin designed the apse with its striking ridge, the colored windows of the chancel, the decor of the vault, the stone pulpit and Gothic church paraments. He constructed an altarpiece from old wood carvings from the continent. For the face of the high altar, he used enamel plates from Limoges. As further furnishings, he acquired confessionals, benches and a carved pulpit from the 17th century from the St. Gertrud Church in Löwen . For the college, Pugin built the two gateways and added a turret to the tower, the Pugin's night-cap .

Other work includes designing the interiors of Erdington Abbey and Oscott College , both in Birmingham . He also designed the buildings for the colleges of St. Patrick and St. Mary in Maynooth.

Between 1840 and 1844, Pugin's influence peaked. From this time the Cathedral of St. Barnabas , Nottingham, the drawings for Balliol College , Oxford (1843), the Church of St. Giles in Cheadle, Staffordshire (1841-1846), as well as extensive repairs and additions to the Alton Towers , Staffordshire . In addition, Pugin also influenced several other British architects. The most prominent example of this is the Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham , who designed numerous churches and representative buildings in Scotland based on Pugin's architecture.

St. Augustine's Grange, Ramsgate

The last major work involved Pugin's own home, St. Augustine's Grange, and St. Augustine's Church in Ramsgate , Kent. The role of the family chapel in Bicton , Devon, the decorations for the House of Lords and the chapel of St. Edmund's College in Old Hall Green , Hertfordshire are elegant and yet original Gothic . During his final years he continued to work with Sir Charles Barry on the new Palace of Westminster ; he designed the Big Ben bell tower , perhaps his most famous building in the world. And he dealt with the Crystal Palace for the World's Fair in London until he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1851, as a result of which he died.

Fonts

  • Ornaments of the XVth and XVIth centuries. Ancient timber houses at Rouen, Caen, Bauvais, & c., Gothic furniture of the XVth century. Designs for gold & silver ornaments, and designs for iron & brass-work in the style of the XVth and XVIth centuries. 4 parts. Ackerman & Co., London 1835-1837.
  • Contrasts, or a parallel between the noble edifices of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and similar buildings of the present day, shewing the present decay of taste. St. Marie's Grange, London 1836. doi: 10.3931 / e-rara-13088
  • The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture. Weale, London 1841 ( full text in Google book search).
  • The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England. Dolman, London 1843
  • An apology for the revival of Christian Architecture. Weale, London 1843 ( digitized ; archive.org ).

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English architect and architectural theorist
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1852
Place of death Ramsgate