The Passage Cottin
1926
Swedish architect Ferdinand Boberg captured the gritty, evolving charm of Montmartre in this 1926 sketch, looking up the narrow Passage Cottin toward the iconic Sacré-Cœur Basilica. Instead of a polished postcard view, he focuses on the rough textures of the stone buildings and the workers digging through rubble in the foreground, showing Paris as a living, breathing city under construction. Boberg was famous for his detailed architectural drawings during his travels, and this piece perfectly blends his precise eye for structure with the bustling atmosphere of 1920s Paris.