ABSTRACT
Historians have paid little attention to the 1830s with respect to Viollet-le-Duc's development, because it appears so removed from his later restoration work and especially his rationalist doctrine. The act of drawing was truly reparative, attending maniacally to every detail of the monument, latter being indeed a "friend" whom the architect draftsman surrounds with all his "care". The dominance of pictorial activities in the 1830s also answered to more pragmatic concerns. Having decided to forego training at the cole des Beaux-Arts, the only public venue left for Viollet-le-Duc's architectural talent was annual Salon de Paris. Like many painters, his initial hopes lay with the Salon de Paris, despite the fact that architecture had a negligible presence in the annual venue. It is worthwhile to review the romantic trend for painterly historical recreations in architecture. Romanticism arose from an enhanced historical consciousness and the concomitant hunger to "see" the past, phenomena that touched architects just as much as writers and painters.
