Sketch of Eglise St. Pierre, Orléans

Architect Arnold William Brunner's ink sketch documents the Church of Saint-Pierre in Orléans, France. The drawing captures the structure's distinctive spire and adjoining buildings in rapid, observational lines typical of architectural travel studies. Brunner, a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, made numerous European sketches during his career, recording vernacular and ecclesiastical buildings that influenced his later design work. Such on-site drawings served as reference material for professional practice and reflected the tradition of architectural study abroad that shaped American designers of the late nineteenth century.