The
Wasmuth portfolio (1910) is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of the American architect
Frank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
(1867-1959).
Titled
Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, it was published in Germany in 1910 by the
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
publisher Ernst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright. It contained plans and perspectives (in linework only) of buildings from 1893-1909.
The
Wasmuth portfolio (1910) is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of the American architect
Frank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
(1867-1959).
Titled
Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, it was published in Germany in 1910 by the
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
publisher Ernst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright. It contained plans and perspectives (in linework only) of buildings from 1893-1909. It was the first publication of any of Wright's work to appear anywhere in the world, as Wright had not published any of his work in his twenty previous years of activity in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The portfolio is significant as a link between Wright's pioneering American architecture, and the first generation of modernist architects in Europe. Wright toured Europe for a year from October 1909 through October 1910, partly to support the publication of the portfolio, but also to experience firsthand a great deal of European architectural history.
Wright's early influence in northern Europe is unquestionable:
Le CorbusierCharles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called Modern architecture or the International Style...
is known to have had and shared a copy, Austrian architects
Rudolf SchindlerRudolph Michael Schindler was an Austrian and later, an American architect whose most important works were built in or near Los Angeles during the early to mid-twentieth century....
and
Richard NeutraRichard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.-Biography:Neutra was born in Vienna on April 8 1892. He studied under Adolf Loos at the Technical University of Vienna, was influenced by Otto Wagner, and worked for a time in Germany in the studio of Erich Mendelsohn...
both re-located to the United States in hopes of working for Wright, and one look at
Willem Marinus DudokWillem Marinus Dudok , was a Dutch modernist architect, best known for the brick Hilversum City Hall....
's 1924 Hilversum Town Hall betrays its origins. At the time of the portfolio's publication, three major influential architects of the twentieth century (Le Corbusier,
Ludwig Mies van der RoheLudwig Mies van der Rohe, born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to and addressed by his surname, Mies, by his colleagues, students, writers, and others....
and
Walter GropiusWalter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
) were all working essentially as apprentices in the atelier of
Peter Behrens**Peter Behrens was a German architect and designer.-Biography:He studied painting in his native Hamburg, as well as in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe, from 1886 to 1889. In 1890, he married Lilly Kramer and moved to Munich. At first, he worked as a painter, illustrator and book-binder in a sort of...
in Berlin, where it has been said that work stopped for the day when the portfolio arrived. If this story is true, it reveals the magnitude of the immediate impact of Wright's architecture in European circles, since Behrens could have conceivably received a copy of the Wasmuth portfolio merely days or weeks after its publication.
Wright would never admit that the exchange worked both ways, always claiming that he took nothing from his year in Europe, but the work of Wright scholar
Anthony AlofsinAnthony Alofsin is an American architect and architectural historian, known primarily for his studies of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, of Modern architecture, and of architectural education. He is currently the Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture at the University of...
suggests that Wright was heavily influenced by the work of the
Vienna SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus.This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
. In turn, the Dutch
De StijlDe Stijl , Dutch for "The Style", also known as neoplasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands....
movement follows Wright's designs by just a few years. De Stijl's major contributors credit Wright with some influence.
Approximately half of the images in the Wasmuth portfolio are the work of architect and one-time Wright assistant
Marion Mahony GriffinMarion Griffin was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licenced female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School...
, whose visual style has a lot to do with its success.
As of 2009, the Portfolio is in print as
Drawings and Plans of Frank Lloyd Wright: The Early Period (1893-1909).
List of selected works contained in the Wasmuth Portfolio
- Edwin H. Cheney House
Edwin H. Cheney House located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, was Frank Lloyd Wright's design of this residence for electrical engineer Edwin Cheney. The house is part of the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District...
- Como Orchard Summer Colony
- Coonley House
The Avery Coonley House, also known as Coonley House, was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed in 1907-1908, this is an estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States...
- Dana-Thomas House
- Thomas P. Hardy House
The Thomas P. Hardy House is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie school homein Racine, Wisconsin that was built in 1905. The house isunimpressive when seen from the street, but striking when viewed from the Lake Michiganshoreline....
- William R. Heath House
The William R. Heath House, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, built between 1904 & 1905, and is located at 76 Soldiers Place in Buffalo, New York. It is built in the Prairie School architectural style....
- Larkin Administration Building
The Larkin Building was designed in 1904 by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York, at 680 Seneca Street. It was demolished in 1950. The five story red brick building was noted for many innovations, including air conditioning, stained glass windows, built-in desk...
- Darwin D. Martin House
The Darwin D. Martin House Complex, also known as the Darwin Martin House State Historic Site, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, built between 1903 & 1905, and is located at 125 Jewett Parkway in Buffalo, New York...
- Park Inn Hotel
Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank are two adjacent commercial buildings located in downtown Mason City, Iowa which were designed in the Prairie School style by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1910, the Park Inn Hotel is the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright designed...
- Robie House
The Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in the Chicago, Illinois neighborhood of Hyde Park at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue on the South Side. It was designed and built between 1908 and 1910 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the greatest example of his Prairie...
- Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important...
- Westcott House
The Westcott House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Prairie Style house in Springfield, Ohio. The house was built in 1908 for Mr. Burton J. Westcott and his wife Orpha, and their family. The Westcott property is the only Prairie Style house designed by Wright in the state of Ohio...
- Winslow House
The Winslow House is a building in River Forest, Illinois designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Built on a private street on the Edward Waller estate, the Winslow House was Wright's first important independent commission and his first attempt at reinventing the traditional house.In 1894, the...
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