Design for a City Building with Three Shops on the Ground Floor
19th century
Medium
Pen and ink, brush and wash and watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 15 x 18 1/4 in. (38.1 x 46.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.659.39
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate 19th-century architectural, titled *Design for a City Building with Three Shops on the Ground*, offers a glimpse into Britain's booming urban landscape during the Victorian era. Created anonymously by a British artist, it depicts a multi-story structure optimized for commercial vitality, with three ground-floor shops supporting residential or business spaces above. Such designs were commonplace amid rapid industrialization and city expansion, reflecting the era's emphasis on functional, ornate facades that blended practicality with emerging architectural trends like Gothic Reviva...