Object Image

Panel from the Palace of Westminster

These decorative oak panels exemplify the designs of A.W.N Pugin, who was the leading exponent of the Gothic Revival style in England. Pugin’s work is central to the transformation in British design that began in the mid-nineteenth century. He admired what he saw as the honesty and purity of medieval art, and deplored the meaningless repetition of historical motifs. Pugin coined the phrase “Brumagen Gothic,” referring to “those inexhaustible mines of bad taste, Birmingham.”

The carved oak panels for the Palace of Westminster were made for both the House of Lords and House of Commons and are just one component of a larger, Pugin-designed interior program, including brasswork (grill panels, larg...

c. 1847
Oak
28.0 x 12.0in
2015.661
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection