Sketchbook: The Lake of Geneva from above Vevey

George Elbert Burr's sketchbook page documents a Swiss landscape, pairing two studies of the Geneva waterfront. The left panel renders architectural detail in fine etching lines—a tower and fortification—while the right employs hand-applied color wash over a figure in traditional dress among flowering plants. Burr, an Ohio-born printmaker and painter, traveled extensively through Europe in the 1890s, gathering material for his etchings and paintings. These field sketches reveal the working method behind his finished compositions: direct observation, tonal studies, and color notation that would later inform his refined prints and canvases.