Sketches at Bourges

Architect Arnold William Brunner's travel sketches document ornamental details from the French cathedral city of Bourges. The page presents architectural studies in pen and ink: a facade of Jacques-Coeur's House with a figure at a window, decorative iron scrollwork from the cathedral, and a sculptural detail featuring a bearded head. These working drawings reveal how late 19th-century architects studied historic structures, recording proportions and ornamental vocabularies for reference. Brunner's precise linework and dimensional notes demonstrate the practical methods designers employed before photography became standard documentation, preserving visual knowledge through direct observation and careful rendering.