Featured Pencil drawing, Tours, France.

Jumble sale buy, pencil drawing, unsigned 9 x 7 inches. Someone has gone to quite some effort to produce this. Folded up at some point as seen on the back. Any thoughts please, for example do you think it’s been copied from a painting or etching? I’ve not been able to track down anything exactly like it but there’s an etching of the same street showing the Cathedral. Thanks for looking. Paper is not as yellow as the last 3 pics, first two pics are about right, no watermarks anywhere.

 

Beautiful fine detail! Did a search and couldn’t find the exact image either..

 

What fun this person had doing this drawing.

I would say amateur having fun. There are things like drawing to the edge and the cartoon abstraction (and not direct observation) of the people that make me think that. Even accounting for the wackiness of old, settled architecture, the perspective is off in a load of places. It happens easy when you've got a million tiny windows and roof lines that you're trying to fit into a small space lol. That part makes me think it was an observed sketch and not a copy of a 2D piece. There are quirks to doing either.

 

Agree re perspective. Viewing the drawing is like being tossed at sea. Still... Hard to accomplish without lots of training and skill.

Debora

 

At Art College I always struggled with perspective too.
I thought some of the windows and brickwork detail looked pretty good.
I’m sure I can find a suitable frame here mount it up and keep it living on. Thanks for the comments.

 

Ah, perspective. My least favorite class in school. Living in NH, we used to go down by the river and draw the mile-long Amoskeag mill. Talk about a lot of windows and vanishing points!