Stanford White's Frames by William Adair

~ s _es he architect Stanford White has been called the great- Pl. I. Angel, by Abbott Handerson I Thayer(l849-1921), c. 1889, in a frame est designer Ame,;ca has ever produced. In addition designed by Stanford White to buildings he delighted in designing picttu-e frames (1853-1906) and made by Joseph Cabus, New York City, 1889. Gilded for many o[ hi s clients and fri ends, including the composition and wood; outside pa inters Abbott Handerson Thayer and Thomas din1ensions of frame, 66 l/4 by 481/s inches. National Museum of American Wilmer D ewing, and the sculptor Augustus Saint- Art, Washington, D.C., gift ofJolin Gaudens (see Fig. 1). White's frame designs were not only in Gellatly. flu ential in the art world of his time but continue to be so today. Above: Pl. II. Detail of the frame shown in Pl. IX. The chief role of the picture frame is to be an adroit mediator Right: Pl. m. Detail of a frame designed between the illusionary painting and the environment in which by White, c. 1892, and probably made the painting is placed, and it is most successful when it is not by Alexander G. Cabus, New York City, for 11,e Blue Dress, by Thomas Wilmer noticed. White understood this basic prerequisite. His genius Dewing(l851-1938), 1892. Oil-gilded was to combine disparat e elements of the many nineteenth-cen composition on pine; outside din1en sions, 383/4 by 343/4 inches over-all. The te a new vocabulary of frame design tury revival styles to crea gently sloping reverse profile of the (see Pl. IV). His frames fitted with restraint into the opulent in frame away from the aperture recalls Dutch and Spanish frames of the teriors designed by the architectural 6rm of M cKim, Mead and seventeenth century. The surface White (1879- 1909) in w hich he was a pa11ner. decoration of Dutch Ripple elements and double C-scrolls causes even low With the growing middle class of immigrants in the 1850s light to dance across the surface. Freer came the demand for frames with G reek, Italian, Dutch, Ger Gallery of Art, Wt,shington, D.C. man, and Spanish elements in Gothic and rococo styles. The Below: Pl. IV. Detail of a frame designed by White, c. 1912, and made by the Pre- Raphaelite movement in England, which favored the taber Newcomb-Macklin Company (founded City. nacle frame in the 1860s, planted the seed fo r the development 1871) of Chicago and New York Metal leaf oil gilded over red bole, of the Renaissance revival in the 1890s, championed by White gesso, and composition on basswood; outside din1ensions, 41 by 40 inches and his associates.2 This was para ll eled by the vogue for the over-all. The frame was made for Young J apanese aestheti c, the Eastlake style, the a,tist-made frames of Woman Doing her Hair by Thayer. The frame combines seventeenth-century the secessionists, and the fluid designs o f art nouveau. During Dutch and Italian elements. The rich this time the frame can1e to be considered an extension of the complexity of surface texture owes much lo the ability of craftsmen at the art it contained, replacing the Victorian concept of a painting as time to work in a variety of techniques. simply a n excuse for an elaborate frame. Private collection. Fig. 1. Three frames designed The 1890s was a time of experimenta by White, Pl. 34 in Sketches and tion with many unusual solutions to fram Designs by Stanford White (New ing.3 Understanding the important effect York, 1920). The frame on the of a frame on a painting, White designed left is in a German Renaissance specific frames for specific paintings. As architectural format with a h is reputation grew he began to design whimsical outer border design frames for lesser-known artists such as known as the Dutch Ripple. The Arthur B. Frost (185 1- 1928), who wrote to architectural frame at the Whjte on May 20, 1904: center incorporates ornament in the panels inspired by When you make the drawing for the frame, fifteenth-century Florentine would you object to letting me have it after frames. The frame on the right, you are through with it? I would be very with its lacy ornament akin to much obliged ifyou would let me use it.... I late nineteenth-century bro have only frame maker's frames and the has been used in cheap factory made wood cades and flocked wallpaper, is giddy glittering things make me sick. ... I have work, ... but the manifest ugliness and hopeless pure invention by White. Col tried to design frames and they have been vulgarity ofthis tawdry and insipid ornament lection of Lauder Greenway. rather dingy failures. 4 has prevented the use ofsuch methods in wood work making any pretensions to quality, and oflate, the gro1,vth ofa better taste is tending, at least in some quarters, to the elimination ofthis cheap stamped ornament. 9 hite's background in frame de sign most probably began with his apprenticeship to the Boston architect Henry Hobson Richard son (1838-1886) from 1872 to 1878, during wmch time he often dealt with the ornamental ele ments of Richardson's projects. The orna ment focused on color, low-relief carving, and the harmony between the over-all de sign and the all-important surfaces, both in side and out. Mrs, N. (,', lrltitr, !,_r .//,/Jot 1'/u1,rr. In 1878, at the impressionable age of twen ty-five, White embarked on a sketching trip Three Frames. through Belgium, Holland, Italy; and France with Augustus Saint-Gaudens 10 and his future partner Charles Pollen McKim (1847-1909), Fig. 2. Detail of the fa,;ade of Five days later Frost wrote to White again: both of whom he had met when all three were Santa Maria Novella in Florence, working on Richardson's Trinity Church in I thank you for letting me have the drawing of Italy, desigoed by Leon Battista Boston. It was during this and other sketching the frame. I will be glad to get it made up and Alberti (14-04-1472), c. 1456- trips to Italy that White became strongly in- 1470. White borrowed elements you can bet no one will get a copy ofit. I will 5 for the frame shown in Pl. VI. value it and try to paint things that will fit it. Photograph by courtesy of White rud not charge for his distinctive, Alinari/Art Resource, New classically inspired frame designs, which he York City. executed as a counterfoil to the poorly con Pl. V. Inglenook in the Metcalfe ceived and ill-proportioned commercial 6 house, designed by McKim, Erames. Those factory-made frames, used Mead and White and built in by an earlier generation of American artists, Buffalo, New York, 1882-1884. had a tendency to overpower the pictures.7 The pierced grille pattern at the By 1900 the austere approach of the arts right turns up in White's later and crafts movement, coupled with James frames. It was a popular expres McNeill Whistler's profound influence,8 cre sion of the Oriental influence in ated an environment receptive to change. the last quarter of the nine The catalogue to a Society of Arts and teenth century. Metropolitan Crafts, Boston exhibition in 1907 sums up Museum of Art, New York City, the reactionary mood: gift, of Delaware North Compa nies Incorporated. It is true that pressed and stamped ornament 450 ANTIQUES fluenced by the Italian masters. He even ing used what came to be known as the incorporated part of the design of the Dewing grille frame on many of his paint fai;:ade of the Florentine church Santa ings of ladies dressed in lace. The frame de Maria Novella into one of his frame designs sign is a sort of poetic essay in gilded lace (see Pl. VI and Fig. 2). It is the elaborate and "shimmering teardrops" 12 (see Pls. VII, carved and inlaid calligraphic pattern in the VIII). The frames were varied by using dif architrave above the portal designed by Leon ferent combinations of metallic colors and a Battista Alberti. For Alberti beauty was the re technique called Roman gilding. 13 The use sult of harmonious proportions, simplicity, and of Roman bronze powder instead of gold the skillful use of classical ornamentation - created a less brilliant finish and was popu all admirable traits that must have also ap lar at the time since the bright gilding of the pealed to the young American architect. preceding era was no longer considered White's frame for The Wave by Thomas tasteful. Indeed, with the advent of electric Alexander Harrison (Pl. VI) is a remarkable light around 1900, a brightly gilded frame combination of elements. The design moves visually overpowered the painting. The chief Pl. VI. The Wave, by Thomas Alexander around like a wave, echoing the roll of the characteristic of the grille frame is that the Harrison (1853-1930), c. 1897, in a frame ocean. The pierced effect is related to Arabic composition ornament is reinforced with designed by White and made by Joseph calligraphy and is intermittently interrupted thin wire and stands away from the gilded and Alexander Cabus. Oil-gilded com by a design that imitates the lateen sail of a background of the frame, creating the illu position on pine; outside dimensions of frame, 35 by 66 inches. The outer section dhow, the vessel in common use from the sion that light emanates from within the of the frame is decorated with double Red Sea to the west coast of India.

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