Architectural Fragments by d’Espouy

"Fragments d’Architecture Antique" (Hector d'Espouy, 1905)

Hector d'Espouy (1854-1929) was a French architect, painter and ornamentalist. This work is a collection of the drawings made by winners of the Grand Prix de Rome while at the Villa Medici, the seat of the Academy of France in Rome. Although drawings of antique ornaments had been made for generations before the winners of the Grand Prix de Rome descended on the Villa Medici, the young Frenchmen were the first to go about the work systematically.

Appreciation of the drawings in d’Espouy’s Fragments d'Architecture Antique cannot be complete without some explanation of the technique of India ink wash rendering. Extreme discipline is required to produce these finely studied works of art. Even the simplest drawings require painstaking care and preparation before any of the washes are applied. Great skill is needed to do the necessary linework. All of the information must be recorded before tone is even thought about. The drawing is then meticulously transferred in ink to the watercolor paper and the paper mounted on a board. The rendering itself requires infinite care and patience. Each tone is built up through many faint layers of wash so that the ink seems to be in the paper rather than on it. Each surface is graded so that the final effect of the drawing is that of an object in light and space, with a sense of atmosphere surrounding it.