George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, - (Sketchbook) Old House, Lausanne - 1899 - T-Shirt

A pencil study of a substantial old house in Lausanne, drawn on the right-hand page of an open sketchbook in 1899, with steep roofs, dormer windows and tall chimneys set down in fine lines.

Visual Elements & Composition

The drawing is built from off-white paper, which fills most of the frame, with grey and dark teal tones carried by the pencil work. The house is seen from a raised, angled viewpoint, so its roof planes step back in layered diagonals. Rows of window openings run across the walls, and light hatching gives the facade and roof surfaces their texture. The left-hand page is left blank, so the sketch sits alone in a quiet, open field.

Meaning & Symbolism

The image is a working record rather than a finished presentation piece. Drawing architecture on the spot was a common habit among travelling artists, who studied local building forms, roof profiles and the texture of older town streets. George Elbert Burr, an American painter and etcher who spent time in Europe, produced views of towns and buildings, and pages like this one show the preparatory studies gathered for that later work. The meaning lies in the act of observation: one building noticed and kept in a personal record of place, where ordinary street life outweighs any dramatic story.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee is worn close to the body and seen from every side, so the sketch moves with the wearer and reads at conversation distance. The blank page of the original book becomes open space around the drawing, and the house's rooflines sit across the chest where the eye lands first. Wearing it puts a small, carefully observed piece of Lausanne architecture in view, drawn with patience and kept as a record of one ordinary building.