Exhibit

REPORT.

ROTCH TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIP.

1887-89.

Mr. President and Members of the Committee for the Rotch Travelling Scholarship, and Members of the Boston Society of Architects:

In offering you a report of my scholarship term I will place before you a review of the work pursued in Paris in an atelier and in connection with the School of Fine Arts (Ecole des Beaux-Arts), and a short narrative of my travelling experiences. The entire period of my absence from Boston was about twenty-seven months and a half. Arriving in Liverpool June 19, 1887, and leaving it Sept. 12, 1889, for America, the entire length of time in Europe was something less than twenty-seven months. Of this, seventeen months and a half were spent in Paris, the remaining nine and a half in travelling. Since my plans on reaching Europe were to commence work in Paris as soon as possible, I went almost immediately to that city, with an interval of but little over a week from the day of arrival in Liverpool, most of this time being spent in London. I then remained in Paris until the middle of August of the following year, during the time making three short journeys away from the city, amounting altogether to not more than two weeks. Then followed a period of about three months of travelling and a return to Paris for the winter, leaving it again March 2 for the final journey of a little over six months. Almost the entire time spent in Paris was devoted to work done in the atelier or for the School; and this study, taking as it did the greater part of my time and attention during the two years, was decided upon to be the principal point in my scholarship work. I entered an atelier - that of Monsieur Pascal - about a week after arriving in Paris, and maintained connection with it until the first of last March, - a period of twenty months. Presumably my experience here from first to last would very much resemble that of all students in a Paris atelier, and I am very glad to have passed through all the phases of their peculiar life. Although receiving certain favors on account of previous experience and the relatively short period of my stay compared with the number of years usually given by a French student to this work, I passed through on the whole the usual system of progress in atelier membership. At first the time was almost entirely occupied in assisting the other students in their work; for this was a very busy time, when the work of the summer was being finished up. This gave me a good idea of the method employed in the School and the life in an atelier. At the end of a month or so the School Problems were finished, and the studio almost deserted, and for the succeeding three months I had the opportunity of quietly working for myself. November brought back most of the students, and the winter months passed with a crowded atelier. During all this time I carried on my own work, which was the study of current first-class problems at the School, and from time to time assisted fellow students with theirs. About the first of the year, while continuing the usual work, I commenced to study at odd times what was necessary for regular admission to the School, and during the months of February and March took up the work more seriously, finally taking the examinations in March, and passing them. After entering the School, I continued on at the atelier, but sent problems to the regular exhibitions and judgments rather than pursue the old course of independent work. Two problems, one of two months and another of one, occupied me in Paris until the middle of August, when I started on a three months journey, to be mentioned in detail farther on. Returning to Paris in November, the four winter months of November, December, January, and February were spent in the city, continuing the course pursued the season before.

To sum up what was accomplished in the time spent in Paris and the studio, besides a considerable amount of general work, I studied and rendered the following problems: The Executive Mansion, which was the subject of the scholarship examination of '86; a problem for a covered bridge connecting two buildings across a street; a farm school, with the necessary groups of buildings; a villa at Nice; a town market, with the application of a Roman order; another school problem illustrating an order; an observatory; a rendered drawing of the Monument of Lysicrates at Athens; and a measured and rendered drawing of an Asiatic base in the Louvre. All but one of these were sent as envois to the Committee. There was also a certain amount of work done in free-hand drawing from the cast and in modelling in clay, both of which were required for admission to the schools. There was also time given to lessons in water-colors. Meanwhile there were opportunities to visit the great museums, which afforded material for sketching, the numerous churches, including St. Dennis, a few miles outside, and the large number of buildings about the city worthy of architectural study.

Devoting as I did the greater part of my scholarship term to atelier work, it is from that I should expect to gain the greatest good, and in this I do not think I have been mistaken. The chief good gained was, doubtless, that insight into French methods of study and criticism which came with each day's work, not only from the advice and opinion of the patron, but the mutual discussion among the students.

Among the advantages gained by regular membership in the School was a certain item of additional seriousness given to the problems, since they were intended for exhibition and judgment, and the opportunity to work on the same ground with other students and under the same conditions and with the same benefits. The use of the library at all hours when open, privileges to draw from cast with criticisms from a professor, and other opportunities in connection with lectures, etc., are among the additional advantages worthy of mention.

I think all Americans who have ever studied in Paris will always retain a feeling of gratitude towards the government of this great school for the privileges offered to foreigners to enter on an equal footing with the native Frenchmen. The testimonial recently offered by the Americans in the establishment of the American Prize is a most commendable acknowledgment of these favors, and as such has been very kindly received by the French students. At the time of the first reward of the prize, which took place last winter while I was in Paris, there were everywhere expressions of appreciation and gratitude to those who have made the gift; and the good-will that has always existed between the French students and the Americans was strengthened by the event.

In closing this subject I would like to speak of the indebtedness I feel toward my patron, Monsieur Pascal, for his kindly interest and ever ready advice; and I shall always recall with pleasure my acquaintance with him and the friendship formed among fellow-students in this atelier.

The period devoted to travelling covered in all about nine months and a half, and, although taken at different times during the two years, may best be reviewed altogether and apart from the Paris work. The time was spent as follows: about two months were given to the French country, one month to Spain, four to Italy, about three weeks to the journey to Greece and Constantinople, five weeks to England, a week to Belgium, the same along the north coast of Africa, and another in Switzerland.

My first experience in travelling, after the winter's study, commenced with a trip to Pierrefonds, made in the early spring of '88 in the company of three fellow-students in Paris. A short journey to Compiegne, and a pleasant walk through the forest between that place and Pierrefonds brought us to the great chateau and the little town at its foot. One could hardly do better than to begin his acquaintance of the chateaux of France by a visit to this noble example. As we now see it, skillfully restored by Viollet-le-Duc, with its picturesque courts and halls and elaborate system of defense, and even a faithful reproduction of its old interior appointments and decorations, it gives a wonderfully correct and pleasing idea of a typical medieval castle in its strength as a fortress and beauty as a mansion, and in the characteristic beauty and force of its detail and ornament.

Not long after, in an intermediate time between two problems at the school, I made a journey of ten days to Northeastern France and Belgium, visiting Reims, Laon, Brussels, Louvain, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Amiens, and Beauvais. This little trip, as well as affording a good opportunity to study comparatively the grand old cathedrals of Reims, Amiens, Laon, and Beauvais, gave me a very good idea of the civil and domestic work in the later Gothic style found in the cities of Belgium. Apart from the undesirability of a direct copyism of this, it impressed me at the time that there were many useful hints contained in it directly applicable to our own domestic work, and that was a kind of republican and individual spirit in all of it that expressed the character of the times in which these buildings were built, and that spirit being not unlike that of our own times, their way of expressing it would not be inappropriate for us.

There was still another short excursion taken before leaving Paris, and this was a short trip to Sens and Fontainebleau, taken in company with a fellow student, the third Rotch scholar. [Footnote: Mr. George F. Newton.] At Sens we found much interesting work in and about the cathedral, and at Fontainebleau there was abundant material in the chateau for notes and sketches of detail.

August 18, I started on a three months period of travelling in France and Spain, this time with another student from Paris. Rouen was the first town visited, and the wealth of Gothic work here interested us keenly. From Rouen we travelled westward through Normandy, visiting Lisieux, Caen, Bayeux, Coutances, St. Lo, Avranches, Mont St. Michel, Pontorson, and Vitre. Among the many great churches of Normandy, the cathedral of Coutances, for its size, impressed me as favorably by its interior as any we saw. The different levels of nave, choir, and choir aisles, the beautiful tracery between the chapels, and the arrangement of coupled columns in the choir seemed to me particularly pleasing. From Vitre we went into the Loire Valley, by way of Laval and Angers, continuing on to Saumur, Tours, Loches, Chenonceau, and Azay-le-Rideau. This is a district well known to all architectural students, and is perhaps the richest in France in material for sketching and in work particularly adapted to our tastes and needs. With a somewhat hurried journey, I was fortunate in being able to take away some of these pleasing and valuable bits in my sketch-book. Of the chateaux that I saw, Azay-le-Rideau pleased me best, with its well proportioned facades and elegant exterior and interior detail. At this point my friend was obliged to leave me, having arranged for only a short vacation from Paris, and so I proceeded on alone, remaining so the rest of my journey, - just two months from this time until my return to Paris in November. If anyone here has ever travelled alone in a foreign country, he will second me, I am sure, in the advice to all others never to do it, for it is not only discouraging and lonely in the extreme, but one's capacity for appreciation and even for work is sadly reduced. From the Loire Valley I travelled south, first reaching Poitiers, a city particularly rich in the Romanesque style of the district. Among the things that made Poitier so interesting were the numerous Romanesque towers, particularly that of Radegonde, and some peculiarities of planning in the churches of the same period. There were two good examples of choirs raised well above the nave, - a most effective arrangement, especially for a ritual service, giving great prominence to the principal part of the church. Continuing south from Poitiers, I visited in succession Angouleme and Perigueux, with their domed churches, Bordeaux, St. Macaire, Montauban, Toulouse, Carcassonne, - most interesting as a remarkably preserved example of a medieval fortified town, - Castres, Albi, Moissac, and Bayonne. It might be well to speak here of the brickwork one finds in the Toulouse district, particularly at Albi, the cathedral in the latter place showing that dignified construction can be executed in this material where the attention is given to forming well-proportioned masses, confining the detail to those points where stone is used, and this hardly appearing except about the portal and other parts near the eye.

From Bayonne I entered Spain, going first to San Sebastian, and then proceeding to Burgos, Medina, Salamanca, Madrid, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, Granada, and Malaga. This Spanish trip, which occupied in all only over one month, was, on the whole, one of the most profitable and enjoyable in any part of my travels. For the limited time that it was possible to devote to this most interesting country, a very good idea was obtained of her best monuments and of her characteristic styles, - the Moorish in the South, and the adapted Romanesque and Gothic in the North. Sketches where time would allow, and notes and memoranda where the opportunity for further work failed, with an occasional note in color, helped to put in more lasting form the many pleasing impressions gained from this journey, and to record some of the numerous valuable suggestions obtained in these monuments.

From Malaga to Marseilles was a journey of a week and a day, principally by steamer on the Mediterranean, and was one of great interest, giving, as it did, a little acquaintance with Tangiers, Gibraltar, Oran, and Algiers. Although these few days in North Africa did not afford me an opportunity for any serious study of architecture, yet there were many valuable hints to be obtained from the old cities with their distinctively Eastern character. The modern portion of the city of Algiers is distinctively French, and as such does not demand any more attention than any modern French town; but there are still remaining in the older parts several mosques and a part of a palace and any number of streets preserving their distinctive Arabic character, - narrow, nearly covered above by the projection of the houses, crooked so as to keep out the sunlight, and with walls entirely white and almost without windows. There is not much to attract one in the exterior architecture, although the palace still retained several interesting bits, notably a frieze of tiles on the walls and tower. The mosques were quite interesting, and under the French power they are accessible to Christians who are willing to remove their shoes on entering. I went into two of the mosques, and was allowed to walk about alone and see what I wished. The Moorish style prevails throughout, but they are very plain, decoration being used but sparingly and confined mostly to the sacred niche. The walls are white, and the floor is covered with a carpet, with a dado of straw matting everywhere about three feet high. There is a noticeable resemblance to the plan of one to that of the mosque at Cordova, and while this is simply a series of cross aisles, there is a distinct system in the arrangement and in the management and decoration of the arches above.

On arriving in Marseilles there was about a week remaining before it was necessary to be back to Paris in time to take the November problems at the School; and this time was devoted to short visits to Arles, St. Gilles, Nimes, Lyon, and Dijon, where were to be seen some of the best Romanesque works in France.

On the second of March of the present year I left Paris with a friend for a journey to Italy and the East. Owing to the earliness of the season, nothing could be done in the French country towns on account of cold weather, which fairly drove us south; so we only devoted eight days to the journey to Marseilles, which still gave us an opportunity to make short visits to Orleans, Bourges, Montlucon, Clermont-Ferrand, Issoire, Brioude, Nimes, and Tarascon. This is a district wonderfully rich in good work, and I was very glad to gain even this slight acquaintance with it. The church at Issoire was about the finest example of the Romanesque of the Auvergne that we saw, and in many respects was superior to Notre Dame du Port at Clermont, - among other things, in the color of the stone-work and the richness of the capitals of the choir. From Marseilles we went to Nice, and then entering Italy visited successively Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Frizole, Prato, Siena, Rome, Tivoli, Naples, and Pompeii, from Naples taking a steamer for the Eastern trip, after which we returned to Italy to visit the east coast and the north, which will be described further on. In this journey down the west coast we made two principal stops, at Florence and Rome, remaining in the former two weeks and a half and in the latter city one month. The work accomplished here was principally the sketching of details, in which these cities are so rich. The mere looking up and examining critically the great number of important buildings and works of art that are everywhere at hand demands a large proportion of the time, but at the same time yields the most important returns.

Leaving Naples May 15, we took an Italian steamer for Messina, and there changed for another for the Piraens, touching at Catania in Eastern Sicily. We were on the water four nights, coming in sight of Athens in the afternoon of the fifth day, clearly seeing the Acropolis with its ruins while yet a considerable distance out at sea. An hour or so more, and we were at anchor in the Piraens. Our plans at this time differred our stay in Greece until our return from Constantinople, and we sailed away again the next day, after but a few hours visit to Athens. The sailing of the steamers limited our time, giving us but two days in Constantinople, which nevertheless enabled us to get a good idea of St. Sophia - which we saw both by daylight and lamplight - and to make a round of sightseeing in the city which brought us to a number of fine bits of Byzantine and Arabian architecture, notably a beautiful fountain, and some excellent early Christian mosaics. Our first visit to St. Sophia was in the evening, when not being observed by anyone in authority, we actually entered the body of the church with our shoes in our hands, before being discovered and put out. They did put us out soon, however, politely, but firmly, showing us the way to the gallery where Christian visitors were allowed, and where the whole mosque can be seen very nicely. The lighting of the church was a prominent feature, and the time being a Mohammedan feast, this was seen at its best. The arrangement of lamps is very effective, there being great numbers placed on a level so that they form a kind of plane of light, above the worshippers but below the galleries. Besides this, there are lights along the cornice and at other points, so that the entire illumination is brilliant. We could walk about the galleries and examine the beautiful detail in the capitals and ornament, and what remains of the old mosaics, some of which are fine in design and color. One is not permitted to stay here as long as he wishes, however, and after a while is asked to leave; but the next day we were enabled to again visit the mosque and to go about the main floor for an hour or two and examine it in detail. While this did not admit of any drawing or sketching, I was able to make a number of notes, principally about the colors and decorations, to supplement and explain a fairly complete set of photographs, and fix the impressions gained by the visit. The Byzantine detail seemed to me some of the most beautiful work I had ever seen, and as something I would like to see adapted to whatever purposes could come within appropriate use. The proportions of the interior are grand, although on the whole they did not seem very churchlike. The richness of the coloring is very pleasing. Of the exterior little can be said; it follows logically the form of the interior and is perfectly consistent with Eastern architecture, but the difficulties in the way of adapting anything of the sort to a Christian Byzantine church seem almost insurmountable. The undesirable advantage of a plan and interior like St. Sophia, for Protestant worship, make the problem an interesting one; and having had occasion during the winter to give some thought to the subject of the New York Cathedral and to the question of modern churches in the style, I took pleasure in seeking here, before the great type, the possibilities of adaptation.

Returning from Constantinople, we spent a week in Athens about the wonderful old Greek ruins, sketching bits of the beautiful detail and making notes by the way. One feels in coming face to face with these world-renowned monuments that he already has a pleasing familiarity with them, which adds much to their enjoyment. At the same time, it is quickly realized that there are many revelations in their actual presence, and pro-impressions not to be gained in any other way but by real acquaintance.

This period being passed, we left Athens by the railroad, which took us by the city and Gulf of Corinth to Patras where we immediately took a steamer for Brindisi. Once more in Italy we started up the east coast, going directly to Ancona, and from there visiting successively Ravenna, Bologna, and Venice; a stop of three weeks being made in the latter city. In relation to Venice, I might say that St. Mark's pleased me more than any other church seen during all my travelling, preferring it even to St. Sophia, and there is about it the greatest abundance of beautiful detail for any one who wished to sketch this kind of work or to make studies in color of mosaics and decoration. During my stay in Venice I made sketches about the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's, and some at Torcello, and a few small water-colors, including one of the House of Gold.

From Venice my route took me through Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Pavia, and Milan, and from Milan I started to return to Paris, going by way of Como, the St. Gothard Railroad, Fluelen, Lucern, Bale, and Troyes. Of these cities in northern Italy, Verona, and Pavia seemed to me to offer the best work for the student, particularly Verona. At Bale in Switzerland there was a lot of nice work where I had not expected much, - mostly executed in the reddish-brown local stone. Troyes is a city rich in good Gothic.

Paris was reached July 26, and a stop was made here of two weeks and a half before proceeding to England. The great Exposition demanded some attention, and in this connection I might mention the very interesting collection of buildings erected to illustrate the history of the habitations of man, comprising, after a representation of the earliest rude huts, a dozen buildings or more in as many different styles, and all sufficiently large to display well the characteristics of the different periods. Two of these - a Pompeian house, and one of the French Renaissance - were particularly good. Another exhibit is the new collection of architectural casts in the Trocadero, comprising full-sized models of the portals of Arles, St. Gilles, and Moissac, and a number of other Romanesque and Gothic subjects. It is a most admirable collection, and as the surface of the plaster is painted the exact color of the stone, it has a most realistic effect. One cannot go through the architectural museums of the Trocadero and South Kensington without wishing that similar ones could be instituted in our own country for the advantage of students and all lovers of art.

The last four weeks of my time in Europe were devoted to a trip in England, spending a little over a week in London, and the remaining time in the country. London, while having a certain number of fine monuments, hardly possesses the interest one would expect from its great size. It possesses, however, an interest of its own in a certain class of modern work that is more pleasing than work of the same period in Paris or elsewhere, particularly in certain buildings where terra-cotta has been used successfully. The Natural History Museum at South Kensington is a good example of this, and is a most admirable building. The domestic work around about London is worthy of much study.

My trip through the English country in the two or three weeks just before sailing for America took me to the following places: Canterbury, St. Albans, Hatfield, Cambridge, Ely, Peterboro, Lincoln, Stratford-on-Avon, the manor-house of Compton Wyngate, Oxford, Chester, and Liverpool. This route embraced a number of cathedrals and two of the best manor-houses in England, - Hatfield House, the seat of the Marquis of Salisbury, with fine Elizabethan interior, and Compton Wyngate, small but beautifully picturesque, especially in the exterior, which is built of brick with light stone trimmings and timber work in the gables, of the Elizabethan or perhaps a little later period. What was perhaps the most valuable of all were the university towns of Cambridge and Oxford. The college buildings in these two towns are not only most charming for their picturesqueness and age, but contain numberless fine groupings of archways, windows, and gables, that form the best models one could have for similar buildings in America, and give suggestions without number of picturesque effects for domestic work, that are easily applicable even to other styles than the appropriate one that is used there. If I could not go to any other place in England, I would wish to be sure to see these two towns. Sketches were made of attractive subjects in most of the places mentioned.

During all my travelling I made it a simple point to do all the sketching time would allow, preferring this to making any measured drawings, since my study in Paris had given me abundant practice in that kind of work. At the same time I made it a practice to place sufficient measurements on sketches to give their proper scale, and also to take measurements of other subjects to serve the same purpose on photographs. A considerable number of written notes were taken along the way. Where time permitted, a few sketches in color were made.

I hope the Committee and Society will approve of the way in which I have devoted the time spent abroad, and the results that have been accomplished. I must express the high appreciation that I hold of the great advantages and opportunities afforded by this period of study and travel, and the benefits I have personally derived from it; and I hope the students of Massachusetts will realize more and more every year the great value of this privilege placed in their hands by those who have so generously founded the scholarship. In conclusion I would like to sincerely thank the President of the Committee and Society for his kindness shown through many letters, and his advice and constant interest in the course pursued.

BOSTON, 1889. EDGAR A. JOSSELYN.