Sears Building, Chicago, Illinois, Elevation of Competition Drawing

Drake + Wight · c. 1873

Medium

Graphite, watercolor, gouache, and ink on tan paper

Original size

42.5 × 36 cm (16 3/4 × 14 3/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

This competition drawing captures a pivotal moment in Chicago's commercial ambitions, rendered with the precision and artistry that distinguished the finest architectural presentations of the Gilded Age. Drake + Wight's submission showcases the layered draftsmanship typical of elite nineteenth-century architectural practice: graphite geometry anchors the composition, while watercolor washes lend warmth and depth, and opaque gouache highlights articulate the facade's projecting cornices and window surrounds. Working on tan paper rather than white was a deliberate choice — the warm ground unifies the palette and gives the elevation a cohesiveness no cold cartridge paper could achieve. The result is less a technical document than a vision, designed to persuade a jury as much as to instruct a builder. Competition drawings of this period were often more refined than the buildings that followed them, and the Art Institute of Chicago preserves this sheet precisely because it represents architectural aspiration at its most carefully considered. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates that layered quality — the interplay of line, wash, and highlight — into the physical richness of oil on canvas, so the drawing's quiet authority reads as clearly on your wall as it does under a museum's archival light.