St Paul's Cathedral

Artist: Unkown

Date: circa 1948

Medium: Pencil on Paper

Paper size: 19cm by 13.9cm

St Paul’s Cathedral holds a central position in the mythos of the Blitz. Its smoking visage made famous by Herbert Mason’s St Paul’s Survives (1940) is a key symbol of the damage that the Blitz brought to London. The off-centre positioning of the cathedral and the observational style of the sketch, however, places an emphasis on the ongoing act of rebuilding and reconstruction, rather than the enduring presence of Wren’s form within the London skyline.

Wren’s monumental dome stands in the background, an unscathed symbol of an earlier period of national renewal and growth. In the foreground labourers of the modern age work with machinery and steel joists among piles of rubble, standing in contrast to the ornate Classicism positioned behind them.