Wright Drawings 1930-1950

[simo8]

Hello, first of all thanks to everybody since this message board has helped me a lot in my research. I'm an architecture student looking for resources to write a thesis about FLW's drawing style. I already looked at the monograph and I wrote down the most common features i could notice (use of aerial pespective, lack of isometries, plant + section in the same drawing), do you know any book or thread that could help me with other points to write down? Thank you very much!

[SDR]

There is some little discussion of Wright's drawing style -- and that of his employees and apprentices, who always shared the workload of both working drawings and presentation illustrations -- on this site, but no threads specifically addressed to the issue, as I recall. And, as far as I know, no book has yet been published on the subject. So, you are going to be dealing with "virgin territory" to a considerable degree, I think.

It is often difficult to know how much input Mr Wright had on many of the drawings in the Taliesin archive (many many of which have now been published, in a variety of formats, mostly hardcover books); this will make your task that much harder. Wright generally considered all the work coming from his many drawing boards as "his" -- that is, he took full responsibility for that work -- and apprentices seldom if ever initialed the work.

If you were to modify the title of your paper to something like "The Drawings of FLLW and His Associates at Taliesin" you would make your job somewhat easier. Also, you could distinguish between the colored-pencil and other presentation perspectives on the one hand, and the many other documents -- plans, sections, and elevations, and detail drawings, as well as preliminary drawings and early perspective views -- to narrow down the scope of the paper further.

Perhaps others will have something to say, as well. I wish I had better news. Best of luck in your endeavor.

S D R

[KevinW]

One of the big coffee table books....I think it has Marin Co. on the cover credits the renderer / drafter by using their initials.

[dkottum]

An interesting influence on FLLW's drawing and architecture from very early in his career were Japanese art prints. He adored and collected them, was a dealer, and wrote and talked about them constantly, saying without the Japanese prints his architecture would have taken a different direction. You will find that his earliest renderings (well, those done by employees and apprentices under his direction) and thereafter were in some manner, often very directly, in the style of print artists Hiroshige and others. You will see Japanese influence in his buildings throughout his life, but look beyond the statues and forms to see the delicate human scale, the relationship to site, the visual extension of building into landscape, the way the landscape shaped the plan and elevation. There is much more, making it an interesting study.

Doug K

[Laurie Virr]

I have the gravest doubts that FLLW was much of a draftsman. Certainly, from his earliest days of private practice he employed outstanding delineators: Dwight Perkins, Marion Mahony, Henry Plumb, John H. Howe. Moreover, any person with a signature as crude as his does not have much control over a pen or pencil.

As I have written previously, in my possession is a blueprint copy of the original drawing of the Taliesin lamp, given to me by John H. Howe. It is an appalling piece of drafting. Any self respecting architect would not produce such a document for his own use, in the privacy of his studio, let alone allowing an artisan to gaze upon it.

This is not in any manner of means to detract from his Architecture. Rather is it a suggestion that the notion that he was a fine draftsman and delineator was a myth he chose to perpetuate, along with many others.

[SDR]

I am happy to hear you say that, Laurie, as it gives credence to my own ponderings. Perhaps the day will come when this truth -- and the corresponding "credit where credit is due" -- will become the norm.

For the benefit of our student, I present the following examples. First, pages of Hiroshige's work. This artist lived from 1797 to 1858, his death occurring just 9 years before Wright's birth.

http://tinyurl.com/4v2tu9n


Later Japanese wood-block prints.


H Yoshida (1876-1950)



Hasui (1883-1957)



Then, several early presentation drawings from Wright's first studio.


Willets (1902)



de Rhodes (project), 1906 -- drawing by Marian Mahony Griffin (signed)



Finally, typical work from the later period.



Marting (project), 1947 -- probably a drawing by John H Howe


SDR

[Roderick Grant]

MMG did both Willits and DeRhodes. FLW did the original drawing of Thomas Hardy, to which MMG added the magnolia blossom. Not sure who did Marting, but probably Howe or Besinger. Davy Davison did the night views of several designs, including Beth Shalom and Lenkurt Electric. None of the chiaroscuro perspectives were in FLW's hand. Not positive, but I suspect FLW did all the work on La Miniatura; it doesn't look like Lloyd's work (he did ASB, German & Barnsdall) and I don't think he had anyone else on the "payroll" at the time. I think FLW did a lot of the details for Imperial, but Arata Endo and Antonin Raymond probably did the general views. Perhaps reference could be found in Raymond's autobiography. FLW did the original plans for Fallingwater, all three levels on a single sheet overlapping one another. The iconic perspective was traced over a photograph after the fact, which he would not have done on his own. He had the same thing done with the Coonley living room, although some of the furniture is remodeled. FLW's style of drawing was fast and furious, with little regard for detail. Just about any perspective that has crisp lines is likely to have been the work of others. If a drawing by, say, Jack Howe looked a bit sterile to him, FLW might sketch some trees and shrubbery round about, and the difference in style is all too apparent.

[Roderick Grant]

Notice on the DeRhodes drawing, FLW, late in life, wrote:
Drawing by Mahony
After FLLW and Hiroshige

[Laurie Virr]

Notice on the DeRhodes drawing, FLW, late in life, wrote:
Drawing by Mahony
After FLLW and Hiroshige

Most of us would have seen that drawing:more myth making on FLLW's part. As Mr Roderick Grant alludes, FLLW was no match for Marion Mahony Griffin, John H. Howe, Curtis Besinger,or Davy Davidson as a delineator.

Was not his legacy safe, when he was in his eighties, without stooping to that level? As an architect he was head and shoulders above all of them. Not being a great delineator did not detract from his other astonishing achievements. If it was for others to better display his creations, so be it.

[SDR]

As in, "Drawn by Mahony after I pointed to Hiroshige and said 'Beat that !' "


S

[Palli Davis Holubar]

Study the FLW Monographs 9-12 that contain Wright preliminary drawings. There are also two other Bruce Brooks Pfieffer books of drawings: Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings and Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings: Masterworks from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. The difference between initial gestural concept drawings and the subsequent refinements as Wright puzzles out the ideas can be appreciated as distinct from renderings that make "fact" of the building ideas. And, of course, drawings of the Mile High Tower are in his hand.

[SDR]

Thanks Palli for providing concrete assistance once again. I hope our student will find these volumes in his or her college library. (Have you found that the Monographs have made their way into the reference collections of university and art school libraries ?)

Of course we'd be interested to see how simo8 gets on with this work. Please keep up informed !

Stephen

[simo8]

I'm glad to say that my college library (in Italy) has the monograph containing the preliminary works which i already used for my research project. It is new to me that Wright didn't single-handedly draw all of his projects (which would have been absurd) but I'm still quite shocked he used this many collaborators. I also find the connection between Wright's style and the japanese prints very interesting, anyway, I wonder if this apllies to his later period (let's say 1935 - 1955) on which I am focusing. I also wonder if the lack of isometries in his works has some reason, do you know anything about that?

[SDR]

If you are referring to the isometric overhead view, that format -- where all lines that in a perspective would converge to a given vanishing point are instead made parallel to each other -- was not in use in the decades during which Wright did his work -- at least not in his studios. (As I recall it, this became a popular drawing type in the profession during the nineteen-sixties, and later.) Rather, Wright preferred to draw in constructed perspective (no computer drafting, then !), and in fact seldom produced an "open-top" view, which is where the isometric is perhaps most usefully employed.

I think there may be a roofless drawing of the Schwartz residence, if memory serves . . . perhaps made for the readers of Life magazine, for whom the prototype of that house was designed.

S D R

[simo8]

Did you notice how he used to put together both the plant and the sections of his buildings in the same drawing? Is this one of his collaborators' signature or is it in FLW's style to do so?