Derrière de l’hôtel de Sens
1926
Swedish architect Ferdinand Boberg wandered the backstreets of Paris in 1926, sketching the 'backside' of the Hôtel de Sens, one of the city's rare surviving medieval mansions. The drawing captures a moody, narrow alleyway dominated by rough stone walls and a cylindrical turret that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale. Despite the ancient, crumbling architecture, a bright yellow cloth hanging from a lower doorway adds a splash of everyday life to the scene. Boberg used dark lines and subtle colors on brown paper to create this atmospheric study, showing how history and daily life coexisted in the French capital.