Woodland Crematorium, Woodland Cemetery, Stockholm, Sweden, First version: exterior perspective
Erik Gunnar Asplund
Swedish, 1885–1940
Unknown
A graphite-on-tracing-paper exterior perspective by Erik Gunnar Asplund presenting a serene, columned crematorium sited within a park-like cemetery, aiming to reconcile classical monumentality with modern restraint.
What strikes you is the broad, low horizon and the disciplined, almost skeletal linework—colonnades and trees register as quiet, measured rhythms at the left while an expansive, nearly empty forecourt stretches to the right, making silence and space palpable.
The drawing exemplifies Asplund's bridge between neoclassical order and modernist simplicity, shaping twentieth-century approaches to ceremonial architecture and landscape design for collective mourning and memory.
Medium
Graphite on tracing paper
Dimensions
7 3/4 x 18 3/8" (19.7 x 46.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, Mrs. Gifford Phillips, Celeste and Armand P. Bartos, Mrs. S. I. Newhouse, Jr., and purchase
Accession
59.1990
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
