Sketch of Lisieux

This architectural sketch by American architect Arnold William Brunner documents a medieval street scene in Lisieux, France. The drawing captures half-timbered buildings with distinctive steep roofs and turrets characteristic of Norman architecture. Brunner's pen technique employs fine cross-hatching and linear perspective to convey depth and texture across the façades. The small figures scattered throughout the composition—townspeople in period dress—provide scale and human context to the urban landscape. The work exemplifies late-nineteenth-century architectural practice, where traveling architects sketched European vernacular buildings to study historical construction methods and design principles. Such drawings served as visual reference material for American architects designing period-revival structures during the Gilded Age.