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

Peter Joseph Weber · c. 1887

Medium

Graphite, ink, watercolor, and tempera on paper

Original size

68.6 × 98.1 cm (27 × 38 5/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

This meticulous elevation drawing captures the grandeur of a proposed civic building in Halle with the kind of precision and artistry that defined the finest architectural presentation work of the late nineteenth century. Peter Joseph Weber produced this sheet around 1887, working in a combination of graphite, ink, watercolor, and tempera — a layered approach that allowed architects of the period to communicate not just structural intent but atmosphere and material texture to clients and civic committees. The result sits somewhere between technical document and finished artwork, with the warm washes of color giving the facades a sense of weight and depth that purely mechanical drawing could never achieve. Architectural presentation drawings of this calibre were rarely intended for public display, which makes their survival in institutional collections like the Art Institute of Chicago all the more remarkable — they offer a rare window into the design process behind buildings that shaped European city centres. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Weber's layered draftsmanship onto canvas, preserving the subtle interplay of line and wash that gives the original its quiet authority. Every cornice, every shadow, every careful gradation is rendered by hand, making this a faithful tribute to a work that has endured well beyond the building it was drawn to represent.