House & Garden 
A STUDY BY WILLIAM E. PARSONS 
progressive steps in a student’s training in the Paris atelier , 
from his preparatory studies to medal drawings of the 
architecte diplome , each by examples of exceptional merit in 
the several categories of design. There are preparatory 
studies and drawings submitted in the examinations for 
entrance to the School, these drawings being simple exer¬ 
cises in a restrained employment of the architectural orders 
and the more usual motifs. There are sketches made while 
their authors have been in the lower or Second Class, gen¬ 
erally solutions of serious problems in planning with partic¬ 
ular attention to group composition in plan. Then there 
are ambitious performances of the upper or First Class, 
mostly details of a monumental character wherein unham¬ 
pered play is given to the fancy and individuality is 
allowed to assert itself, constantly encouraged both as 
regards design and presentation or rendering. 
The group of drawings which throws most light upon the 
sketch design problem throughout the complete system of 
study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts is that contributed by 
William E. Parsons, of New York. The author, it will be 
remembered, made a most envi¬ 
able record while in Paris, enter¬ 
ing the School first etranger (all 
applicants not native Frenchmen 
being so classified on the rolls). 
Among his drawings executed 
while still an aspirant for admis¬ 
sion, is an interesting, well indi¬ 
cated sketch of a “ Monumental 
Stair in a Public Building also 
a study inspired by the Garde 
Meuble , Gabriel’s building, fa¬ 
miliar to most of us, which 
closes the Place de la Concorde 
on the north. 'Phis drawing 
well illustrates that precise anal¬ 
ysis. of the best existing monu¬ 
ments which is so strongly ad¬ 
vocated by M. Laloux, under 
whom Mr. Parsons was a pupil. 
These elementary studies in ad¬ 
dition to the entrance Concours 
d ’ Emulation for “A Pavilion 
Projecting from the Facade of a 
Public Building,” are in a sense 
more instructive if less exhila¬ 
rating than the imaginative work 
of mature classes, since they rep¬ 
resent the basis on which the 
advanced work must stand. 
PUBLIC BATHS 
BY WILLIAM E. PARSONS 
