Funeral of James Cardinal Gibbons at Roman Catholic Cathedral, Baltimore, MD

Griffith Baily Coale's sketch captures the solemn ceremonial space of Cardinal Gibbons's funeral mass. Vertical hatching defines the cathedral's interior architecture—towering columns, draped fabrics, and an ornate baldachin overhead. The composition channels viewers' eyes downward through layered perspective toward the altar and gathered clergy and mourners rendered as dark, elongated figures. Coale employs light and shadow to convey the gravity of the Catholic ritual, with the cardinal's heraldic emblem positioned prominently above. This preparatory drawing demonstrates the artist's facility with architectural detail and crowd composition—skills he would later apply to historical murals and naval documentation during World War II.