Pugin's Contrasts

A. W. N. Pugin's book Contrasts, self-published in 1836, had a profound impact on the development of architectural and decorative taste of the nineteenth century.

The text of the book is his passionate indictment of the failings and inappropriate uses of the neo-classic style, and was Pugin's first salvo in a lifelong campaign championing the medieval forms of Britain's Catholic past. The final chapter is entitled 'The Wretched State of Architecture at the Present Day'.

The illustrations Pugin used were literally a series of contrasts; one image is of a building or object in the neo-classic style, in his mind depleted and inappropriate. Next to it is an image of the same type of structure, but of a proper, honest, and high Gothic design.

The Steedman sketchbook for this book is an early version (1833) of the drawings that Pugin was considering using, and does not include any text, only a series of beautifully drawn images of 15 'Contrasts'. The book that was eventually published in 1836 does not include any of these generic drawings; Pugin chose instead to use examples of real buildings.