The Erectheum, West Elevation [left half]
c. 1898
![The Erectheum, West Elevation [left half] by John Russell Pope](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/the-erectheum-west-elevation-left-half-nga-169256.webp)
Medium
graphite
Dimensions
overall: 49.85 × 67.31 cm (19 5/8 × 26 1/2 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. John Russell Pope
Accession Number
1939.2.14-15
Art Historical Context
Step into the neoclassical world of John Russell Pope with *The Erechtheum, West Elevation [left half]*, a meticulous graphite drawing from around 1898. This precise architectural rendering captures the left portion of the west facade of the ancient Erechtheion (or Erectheum), a revered Ionic temple on Athens' Acropolis built in the 5th century BCE. Pope, a leading American architect of the Beaux-Arts era, created this during his early travels and studies in Europe, honing his eye for classical proportions that would define his later masterpieces like the National Gallery of Art and the Jeffer...
About the Artist
John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope (1874–1937) was a preeminent American architect whose monumental neoclassical designs defined much of Washington's monumental core. Born on April 24, 1874, in New York City to portrait painters John Pope and Mary Avery Loomis Pope, he grew up immersed in an artistic milieu that foreshadowed his own career. After initial studies at the City College of New York in 1888 and graduati...