Granada

Arnold William Brunner's architectural sketch captures a fortified tower complex in Granada, Spain, rendered in pen with characteristic economy of line. The study demonstrates the observational method that defined late-nineteenth-century architectural drawing: rapid notation of massing, fenestration, and regional roofing systems without idealization. The tower's layered silhouette and clustered ancillary structures reveal both Islamic and Christian building phases. Brunner, an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, traveled through Europe documenting historic architecture. Such field sketches served as primary research for design projects and informed the emerging American revival styles of the 1890s.