Bordighera, Italy

George Elbert Burr's pen-and-ink sketch captures the rocky coastline of Bordighera with characteristic precision. Burr, an Ohio-born artist who spent decades in the Southwest, here documents the Italian Riviera's dramatic geology—layered sedimentary cliffs rising from textured waters. His linear hatching technique creates volume and movement across the composition, from foreground boulders to distant promontories. A small sailing vessel anchors the scene in human scale. Burr's travel sketches bridged artistic traditions: rooted in nineteenth-century landscape draftsmanship yet executed with the economical line-work that would define early twentieth-century illustration.