Courtyard, Granada

Architect Arnold William Brunner's sketch captures a Spanish courtyard with the quick, economical line work typical of architectural travel studies. The drawing emphasizes spatial relationships through hatching and perspective, recording decorative tile roofing and the layered planes of colonial Mediterranean domestic architecture. Brunner, a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, traveled extensively in Europe to study historical building traditions that influenced his institutional and residential designs. This sketch represents the working method by which architects of the period documented source material for inspiration and reference, bridging European precedent with American practice.