396 EUGENE EMMANUEL VIOLLET-LE-DUC. 



Coucy, and of the Chateau of Pierrefonds ; a geological and topo- 

 graphical work upon Mt. Blanc, recording the result of observations 

 made during successive summers ; a work upon modern fortification ; 

 and a volume upon the chapels of Notre Dame de Paris, with details 

 of the decorations as restored by him. Besides these more serious 

 works, he printed from time to time a number of lighter volumes, the 

 work of his leisure hours : " The Story of a House " ; " The History 

 of Human Habitations"; "The History of a Fortress " ; "The His- 

 tory of a Cathedral and of an Hotel-de-Ville " ; and finally, his last 

 work, " How to learn to Draw." These are all thrown into the form 

 of fictitious narrative, in which, as in most examples of historical fiction, 

 it is not always easy to separate what is due to the invention of the 

 writer from what is due to his erudition. He was also a frequent con- 

 tributor to the artistic journals, publishing, among other things, a series 

 of papers in V Art, upon the subject of restorations. 



All these works are profusely illustrated with wood-cuts and en- 

 gravings, made from drawings by his own hand, of extraordinary 

 variety, beauty, and elaboration of detail. * 



But if these thirty-three volumes are the best record of his intelli. 

 gence and learning, they by no means form the substance of his work, 

 nor are the illustrations by which they are embellished the chief exam- 

 ples of his skill. These are rather to be found in the magnificent 

 series of drawings which he executed for the Commission des Monu- 

 ments Historiques, and those which he from time to time exhibited in 

 the Salon. These comprised, among others, a set of drawings of old 

 French architecture, made at the opening of his career, while still 

 a student with M. Leclerc, which gained for him, at the age of 

 twenty, a medal of the third class. Four years later a medal of the 

 second class was awarded to him for drawings made in Rome, Sicily, 

 and Magna Graecia, including a remarkable view of the city and thea- 

 tre of Taormina, during the representation of a play. Besides these, 

 he exhibited a restoration of Trajan's Forum, a view of the arcade 

 of the Tuileries in its original estate, and other works, for which he 

 received a first-class medal in 1855, and again in 1878. 



He also executed from his own drawings and sketches, aided by his 

 wonderful memory, three remarkable maps of the Maritime Alps, one 

 topographical, one geological, and one showing the roads, houses, and 

 villages ; and, at a later period, prepared and published a military 

 map of the works erected during the siege of Paris, accompanied by a 

 text. 



These drawings and sketches were made with a facility aud precision 



