Rathskeller Neubau, Halle (Saale), Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Elevation

Peter Joseph Weber · c. 1887

Medium

Graphite, ink, watercolor, and tempera on paper

Original size

69.1 × 95.6 cm (27 3/16 × 37 5/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

Weber's elevation for the Rathskeller Neubau in Halle is a testament to the precision and artistry that German architects brought to civic presentation drawings in the 1880s. Produced around 1887, the work layers graphite, ink, watercolor, and tempera — a combination of media typical of high-quality architectural presentations intended not just to specify construction, but to persuade and impress patrons and civic committees. The linework is controlled and exact, mapping the ornamental facades of this Halle landmark with measured care. The watercolor and tempera washes then add warmth, shadow, and a sense of material depth that purely technical drawings rarely achieved, lifting what could have been a dry record into something closer to a portrait of a building yet to be built. Working within the conventions of late nineteenth-century German architectural draughtsmanship, Weber produced a document that reads as both technical record and artwork. The drawing is held in the architectural collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the world's foremost repositories of historical architectural drawings. This hand-painted oil reproduction captures the layered quality of Weber's original — its precise geometry, its warm washes of colour, and the quiet confidence of a craftsman who understood that architecture's first impression is made on paper.