Architecture Parlante

“Étienne-Louis Boullée's (b. 1728 Paris, France, d. 1799 Paris, France) greatest architectural legacy is not what was built from his designs but the designs themselves. He never went to Italy, yet his theories greatly influenced the development of Neoclassical architecture there.

Boullée wanted to be a painter but switched to architecture at his father's insistence. He learned to make architectural drawings with painterly effects of light and shadow. Although few of his designs were ever realized, his drawings have always been admired for both their beauty and their invention.”