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Description
Viollet-le-Duc Drawing Worlds is the first major U.S. exhibition devoted to Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879), the visionary architect, designer, and theorist who redefined the Gothic past for a modern age. Bringing together nearly 200 drawings and objects—many never before seen in the United States—the exhibition reveals how his meticulous draftsmanship was both a creative process and a tool for reimagining history.
As an artist and theoretician, he reimagined the medieval period as a world grounded in craft and collective intelligence, a model of artistic freedom and national identity. For Viollet-le-Duc, Gothic buildings expressed a spirit of shared purpose—rational yet inventive—that his own world, nineteenth-century France, required. Although his endeavors were rooted in history, his concerns were urgent and contemporary. In Viollet-le-Duc’s visual universe, drawing is a way of thinking, and the past is alive in the present.
With pen and pencil, Viollet le-Duc scanned the anatomy of cathedrals, mapped geological formations, and gave life to an imagined past. The exhibition will trace his career from early travel sketches in Italy and the Alps to the soaring restorations of Notre-Dame de Paris and Carcassonne, culminating in late works that blur the boundaries between architecture, nature, and imagination.
January 28, 2026 - May 24, 2026
18 West 86th Street
Groups of 10 or more must schedule a private tour by contacting gallery.desk@bgc.bard.edu.
Viollet-le-Duc Drawing Worlds is organized by Bard Graduate Center in partnership with the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie, a department of the French Ministry of Culture.
Curated by Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University; and Martin Bressani, William MacDonald Professor at the Peter guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University; with project coordination by Emma Cormack, BGC associate curator.
Support for Viollet le Duc Drawing Worlds is generously provided by the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Tavolozza Foundation with additional support by Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, Camilla Dietz Bergeron, Ltd., the Fondation Napoléon, and other donors to Bard Graduate Center.
Banner Image: Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French, 1814–1879), view of the antique theatre at Taormina, restoration project, 1840. Pencil, watercolor and gouache on paper. Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie, Charenton-le-Pont, F/1996/83/HF-4715.
Date & Time
Jan 28 - May 24, 2026
Venue Details
BARD GRADUATE CENTER GALLERY
18 West 86th StreetNew York, New York 10024
