Examples of French Gothic Revival from the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Some of the very most interesting examples of gothic revival vestments come from turn of the century France and today I thought we could explore a few of them. First, however, a comment. Sometimes the impression people have of gothic revival vestments can be lukewarm at best; the feeling being that it can all look rather similar and with little in the way of traditional ornamentality. However, it must be understood that much of this sense has been informed by vestments that were not bespoke creations but rather those that were created to be mass produced for catalogue sale, often rather conservative in design in order to appeal to the broadest possible consumer base (and with the highest margins of profit). Not exactly an ideal benchmark.  

The real potential for gothic revival vestment work is not to be found there; it is rather to be found in the work of the nineteenth century English gothic revivalists such as A.W.N. Pugin and G.F. Bodley or contemporaneous artists working in later nineteenth and early twentieth century France (and some other northern European countries) as in the case of our examples today.

In both of these instances what we tend to see in the earliest years were shapes that were much more truncated than what we would tend to call 'gothic' now -- being more akin to "Neri" or "Borromean" shapes -- and they frequently also still tended to employ the sorts of Latin crosses in their designs that would also be typically found on French vestments in the Roman tradition. In many regards they can be considered a hybrid of the two:

But I digress. My intent today is not to give a consideration to the evolution of the gothic revival shape from its earliest origins, but rather to simply give our readers a brief look at some fine examples coming from within the French gothic revival tradition.  Enjoy. 

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