Architectural Sketch: Caudebec

This ink sketch documents a half-timbered structure in Caudebec-en-Caux, a historic Norman town. The artist captures the building's distinctive medieval features: steeply pitched roofs, ornamental spires, and exposed timber framing characteristic of Northern French vernacular architecture. The loose, gestural line work and atmospheric shading convey both structural detail and artistic immediacy. Architect Arnold William Brunner traveled extensively through Europe during the 1880s, sketching buildings that would inform his later design work in America. Such travel drawings served as direct reference material and inspiration for the Romanesque Revival and eclectic commercial architecture he would develop in New York and other cities.