Winold Reiss: a Pioneer of Modern American Design

38 Queen City Heritage Winold Reiss: A Pioneer of Modern American Design

C. Ford Peatross commercial art, that was a notable characteristic of his time. The professions of commercial and industrial design as we know them today developed out of this stimulating Cincinnati is especially fortunate in having convergence. We are just beginning to study and to recog- not only one of Winold Reiss's most ambitious commis- nize the multiple contributions which Reiss made to sions, but also one of the few that survives, for the nature American architecture and design. He helped to prepare of most of his work in commercial architecture and interi- the way for figures like Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel or design was necessarily ephemeral. As a public building, Geddes, Donald Deskey, and Walter Dorwin Teague, Cincinnati's Union Terminal is also exceptional in Reiss's among others who established the United States as a work, although the many restaurants, hotels, and shops world leader in commercial and industrial design during which he designed were at one time a part of the daily the 1930s. In 1913, however, this country was on the dis- lives of thousands of people. So prolific was Reiss, that by tant edges of the coming wave of change. 1940, not counting the Cincinnati station, in any one day over 30,000 Americans lived, met, ate, drank, or were entertained in a Reiss designed interior. Today Cincinnatians are alone in this privilege. "Masterpieces" of architecture, landscape, and interior design too often lie outside the paths of ordinary people. Historians of vernac- ular and commercial architecture are now directing increasing attention to the transitory structures which con- stitute such an important part of our built environment, and which play significant roles in the quality of our lives. Although most of his work as an architect and interior designer has disappeared, during four decades of practice Winold Reiss set a course that in considerable measure contributed to and enlivened American design. This is an introduction to that largely unrecognized journey. The Atlantic liner S. S. Imperator docked in Hoboken, New Jersey, on October 29,1913, bringing with it from Hamburg three ambitious young men: Fritz Winold Reiss, Oscar Wentz, and Alfons Baumgarten; each of whom played a role in introducing modern design to the United States. One was a young, brash, energetic, and talented artist fresh out of Munich, then one of Europe's thriving art centers. Fritz Winold Reiss (1886-1953) was well-prepared to make his mark in the New World.1 MUNCHEN 19°8 Trained by his father, the artist Fritz Reiss, and at both the >!T Royal Academy of Art, under the famous painter and UNTERDEMPROTEKPRATESRKHD"- • • RECENTENLUiTP°LD.B/- • sculptor Franz von Stuck, and the Kunstgewerbcschuh r (School of Applied Arts), under the equally notable poster artist Juliez Diez, he represented the coming together of ANCEWANDTE KUNST-HANDWERK-f NDU5TRIE- two great streams of artistic endeavor, the fine arts and HANDEL-OFFENTUCHEEINRICHTUNCEN-SP Figure 1

C. Ford Peatross is curator of American Architecture, Reiss studied at the Credits for the illustrations in Architecture, Design and Design, and Engineering. He Kunstgewerbeschule (School this article are listed on Engineering Collections, is a member of the board of of Applied Arts), under the page 57. Prints and Photographs editors of Buildings of the notable poster artist Juliez Division, the Library of United States and the Diez. (Figure #1) Congress where he is cur- Octagon Committee of the rently directing a new project American Institute of to establish a center for Architects. Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 39 It is useful to observe that Reiss's education in Munich's Kunstgewerbeschule reflected a turn-of-the- century optimism that artistic talent and energy could and should be productively channeled to the creation of the objects of everyday life; that the lives and work of artists, artisans, and workmen should be more connected; and that both commerce and the human spirit would profit from such association. Riding the crest of the Industrial Revolution, during the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, study and training in the applied arts were the object of considerable attention in Great Britain, Europe, and, finally, in the United States, where industrial design ultimately emerged as an independent profession. The career of Winold Reiss was congruent with the birth of that profession from the seeds of the Arts and Crafts and Applied Arts movements. But it was more. Reiss brought to his work not just the principles and skills afforded by his excellent training, but his own artistic talent, allowing him to create works whose energy and imagination continue to speak to us today, bringing both pleasure and inspiration. The decorative vocabulary of Figure 2 Vienna's Secession movement, the bold colors and forms Collector (M.A.C.) (1915-18). Unprecedented in the quality of German Expressionism, and the conventions and and style of its printing, as well as its subject matter, the abstractions of African art, all evident in Reiss's early work, M.A. C. served as the main tool to promote the goals of the were to be transformed into something distinctly Society of Modern Art and the work of its members. American. Wentz simultaneously attempted to popularize the Art From across the Hudson River, Reiss and his Poster Stamp in this country and enlisted the support of companions were greeted by the daring new skyscrapers of executives in the infant motion picture industry interested the world's greatest city. Considerably less daring was New in improving American poster design.3 He was described in York's attitude towards modern art, notably demonstrated 1929 as "a pioneer of modern art in this country and the several months earlier in its reaction to the famous Armory first president of the Society of Modern Art, an early group Show. American discomfort extended to the realm of com- of modern artists."4 mercial design as well, as they were soon to discover. Reiss played a key role in the production of Undaunted, perhaps even challenged by this unreceptive the early issues of the M.A.C. , so much so that one won- atmosphere, Reiss and one of his fellow passengers, Oscar ders when he had time to sleep or eat during its first six Wentz, set out almost immediately to introduce the bold months of publication. This work drew upon his experi- colors and daring forms of Modern Decorative Art2 to the ence in creating the first issue of a periodical entitled land of the Puritans. Wentz possessed something that was Junjvolk while still in Germany.5 From September to completely at home on these shores: a keen entrepreneurial December of 1915, he designed three of the M.A.C.}s first spirit which spurred him to develop a wide range of pro- four covers, much of what was inside, and in large part jects. The direct result was to provide Reiss with an imme- established its graphic identity. Particularly Reissian were diate stimulus and patronage for his work, including the undulating vertical and horizontal lines6 employed in graphic and interior design, launching his career and borders and the slanting or falling letter "S,"7 which later advancing Wentz's. became hallmarks of his architectural and graphic design Oscar Wentz served as an avid propagandist projects. It is revealing to compare Reiss's first M.A.C. and promoter of modern commercial art. Within two years cover to a poster designed in 1908 by Julius Diez, his pro- of his arrival he founded the Society of Modern Art and fessor at Munich's Kunstgewerbeschule,* to promote an began to publish its official organ, the Modern Art important applied arts exhibition Diez silhouettes a bold

It is revealing to compare Reiss's first M.A.C. cover (Figure #2) to a poster designed in 1908 by Julius Diez, his professor in Munich. (Figure #1) 40 Queen City Heritage of conservative businessmen. Reiss's first architectural commission, the Busy Lady Bakery of 1915 (described in 1939 as the first modern store in New York)10 is covered at length. Emphasis is given to the involvement of the artist in every aspect of the store's design, from its interior and exterior architecture, to its advertising and bold blue and white packaging, all illustrated in the M.A. C. Reiss worked out the spare but elegant essentials of the interior design scheme for the Busy Lady in a small design sketch whose strong lines, squarish grids, and punctuation of broad flat surfaces with simplified decorations recall the work of Josef Hoffmann and the Vienna Secession and at the same time establish a recurring theme in his own work. The look of the M.A. C. was dramatic, bold, colorful, self-consciously modern, and German. This augured both good and ill for the fate of the publication, for Germany, and Munich in particular, led the world in printing technology and graphic design. The pages of the M.A.C. are filled with the advertisements of printing firms and suppliers throughout the United States with German origins: the Stockinger, A. Bielenberg, and Zeese- Wilkinson Companies of New York; Berger and Wirth of Brooklyn, Charles Hellmuth of New York and Chicago; the Manternach Engraving Company of Hartford; F. Weber & Co. of Philadelphia; the Meinzinger Studios in Figure 3 Detroit; Frank B. Nuderscher of St. Louis; and the symbol of the genius of the arts applied to the tools of industrial production against the outline of Munich's Frauenkirche, while Reiss places a colorful parrot and abstracted flower vases against a bright pink background into which they partially blend. Both employ bold lettering and simplified forms, large expanses of flat and contrasting colors; and strong lines: the distinctive attributes of the German Poster Style.9 While the first M.A.C. cover was self-consciously sophisticated and represented a tour-de- force of the lithographic art, the tenth (ca. 1917) shows us another, quite different side of his artistic personality, the love of primitive natural motifs and the ability to reduce and simplify them to essential patterns of form, line, and color. The bird and flower motif becomes a signature in much of Reiss's later work. The pages of the M.A.C. also are useful in providing evidence of the diversity and success mi ALL INrOflMATIOM of his beginnings. The start of a long career as an educator INQtISOE-M REiss 1 STUDIO is signaled by a witty promotion for the Winold Reiss 96FIFTHAVE* OO ATTME School in which an artistic cherub armed with a dripping 81 JtOOTHEPHAVt: brush tames a bucking tube of tempera. A more restrained NEWYORK presentation of the importance of good lettering in advertising was clearly designed to appeal to a different audience Figure 4

The tenth M.A.C. cover repre- The start of a long career as sented quite a different side an educator is signaled by a of Reiss's artistic personality, witty promotion for the the love of primitive natural Winold Reiss School in which motifs and the ability to an artistic cherub armed with reduce and simplify them to a dripping paint brush tames essential patterns of form, a bucking tube of tempera. line, and color. (Figure #3) (Figure #4) Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 41 Barnhart Brothers of Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, already well on his way to becoming one of New York's Dallas, Omaha, Kansas City, Saint Paul, and Seattle; leading restauranteurs. Within a decade after his arrival in among others. Chicago's Society of Poster Art styled itself New York, Otto J. Baumgarten came to preside over a as specializing in the "Munich System" of designing and small empire of the city's finest restaurants, including the printing. None of this commercial goodwill, however, was Voisin, the Crillon, the Esplanade, and the Elysee.12 to prove equal to the rising tide of anti-German feeling Initially trained at his father's restaurant in Vienna, the related to the First World War (1914-1918), which the hearth of the modern movement in architecture, United States entered in its last year. Modern German Art Baumgarten was not blind to the commercial advantages

TO BUIINCSS ANDMORC BUSINESS TO JMBT riHTI WINOfcDMEIH

MODEDI LETTEI Figure 6 VEPTIII. of good design, and saw the wisdom of using his eating establishments as a proving ground for Reiss's work in )istinctive lettering am is an essential of we suc- interior decoration, for which they provided a highly visi- cessful advertisement« If should be massed m ble and suitable stage. The first Restaurant Crillon of 1919- some geometric shape or decorative manner 20, located at 15 East 48th Street, caused a sensation to Form a port of the whole ctesidh • » • referred to repeatedly over the next two decades.13 Called the "first modernistic interior in America,"14 it featured flat, starkly delineated wall surfaces; prismatic hues; and large, simplified decorations, presaging the "super-graphics" of our own time. All are evident in one of Reiss's small design sketches, where the bird-and-flower theme of Figure 5 the decorative wall panels recall the second cover of the had no place in a nation whose army grew from 160,000 to M.A.C. and the avant-garde furnishings are right out of 3,500,000 between 1916 and 1918 and was rationing meat Vienna. Another Baumgarten enterprise, the manufacture and sugar in order to stop another sort of Teutonic offen- of chocolates, led to the creation of establishments such as sive.11 The final issue of the MAC, published in 1918, put the Baumgarten Cafe Viennois and Baumgarten Viennese forward its brand of Modern Art as European rather than Bonbonniere, for which, in addition to architecture, Reiss heavily German, and promoted the third Liberty Loan and designed packaging and even the delivery truck,15 continu- the patriotic involvement of all artists, but it was to prove ing a pattern begun with the Busy Lady Bakery and too little, too late. extending throughout his career.16 Otto Baumgarten also To return to the last of our Atlantic voy- collaborated with Reiss as a consultant in restaurant man- agers, Alfons L. Baumgarten was important primarily for agement, bringing his expertise to many other American providing Reiss with an introduction to his brother, Otto, restaurant projects.17

A more restrained presenta- Reiss worked out the spare faces with simplified decoration of the importance of but elegant essentials of the tions. (Figure #6) good lettering in advertising interior design scheme for was clearly designed to the Busy Lady in a small appeal to a different audience design sketch with strong of conservative businessmen. lines, squarish grids, and (Figure #5) punctuation of broad flat sur- .*• v • - ,;;.•/ DESIGNED BY F. W. ft'.

- • • •

Figure 7 DECORATION

Figure 8

Reiss's first architectural the store's design. He commission, the Busy Lady designed its interior and exte- Bakery of 1915 (described in rior architecture, as well as its 1939 as the first modern store advertising and bold blue and in New York) is covered at white packaging. (Figures #7 length. The artist was and 8) involved in every aspect of Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 43

Figure 9

The Crillon Restaurant, called graphics" of our own time. the "first modernistic interior All are evident in one of in America," featured flat, Reiss's small design starkly delineated wall sur- sketches. (Figure #9) faces; prismatic hues; and large, simplified decorations, presaging the "super- 44 Queen City Heritage Wentz's M.A.C. and Baumgarten's Crillon sion allowed Reiss to begin to develop a decorative vocab- commissions were key factors in the first decade of Reiss's ulary that became a key part of his own repertoire and has design career in America, paving the way for increasing remained a popular sub-theme of American restaurants and success during the 1920s, out of which he emerged as a nightclub decoration to the present day. Its stylistically well known figure in American interior decoration and tex- advanced, Cubist-related ideas, are described in New York tile and furniture design. It was a decade framed by design 1930: "The Congo Room was part of a rooftop restaurant commissions for two important hotels, the Alamac and the known as the South African Garden that, according to St. George. Architecture and Building, was destined to appeal to those Harry Latz, the developer of the Hotel craving 'an unusual and garish setting for their meals.' Alamac,18 gave Reiss considerable artistic and financial free- Elevators whisked diners to a rooftop entrance vestibule dom in its decorating scheme, to notable effect. The public with grass flooring and a straw-covered ceiling. Entered rooms of the building were conceived in two very different through the jaws of a vividly painted mask, the restaurant styles. In her 1925 article for the International Studio,19 the itself resembled an African village. The theme was carried critic Margaret Breuning wrote: "One realizes the empha- out in the chairs and tables and the murals of leopards, sis of decoration in modern murals in the work of Winold chimpanzees, and snakes. Diners seeking privacy could take Reiss, who has done a number of restaurants and most their meals seated at booths made to resemble thatched recently the Alamac Hotel. The Hotel Alamac has many huts, which lined the walls and focused on a native 'council motifs in its decorations varying with the intended use of chamber' from which an orchestra blared its jazz. Each the rooms as well as their shape and size. The mediaeval chair back simulated a tribal mask, and the general lighting room is one of the most effective. Its panels represent pic- emanated from idol masks suspended from the ceilings."22 turesque figures of the Middle Ages. The huntsman, the The decoration of the Alamac's rooms, suites lady fair and the valiant knight alternating with rich metal and corridors were also a part of Reiss's commission, and panels elaborately carved. The Congo Room makes use of they allowed him to draw upon the principles of Modern the motifs of primitive African sculpture and ornament, Decorative Art as they applied to residential interiors. In a not only in its murals but also in its furnishings down to sketch for a sitting room in one of the hotel's suites we can the most trivial detail. The effect is remarkably impressive." see its similarities to a domestic interior published in the Writing almost a decade later about the use of decorative first issue of the M.A.C, part of a feature on the work of metalwork in Rockefeller Center, Eugene Clute identified E. H. and G. G. Aschermann, a Viennese team designing Reiss's work at the Alamac as the first and best of its type: American interiors in the spirit of the Wiener Werkstatten. "Perhaps the first notable example of this kind of metal Mr. Aschermann was described as having studied with work was the series of large decorative wall panels that Josef Hoffmann, and nothing shown belies this. The sim- were designed by Winold Reiss for the Hotel Alamac, New ple lines of the furniture are emphasized by their black fin- York City, and installed in the grill room when that hotel ish, echoing the strong outlines of the baseboard, carpet, was built, ten years or more ago. They were executed in a french doors, and window. Wall panels bordered in bril- combination of metals worked in repousse, including liant blue with bright yellow accents complete the ensem- wrought iron, copper, brass, steel and aluminum. The ble. Both the Aschermanns' and Reiss's interiors were craftsmanship was executed by Julius Ormos and Charles unprecedented in American residential architecture of the Bardosy. The work represented scenes of the chase, ren- period, and would have appeared strikingly modern in the dered with an admirable sense of decorative values and a 1930s, as they do, indeed, today. Whereas the Aschermanns' 20 feeling for the technique employed." The Architect and was advanced, Reiss's interior was more daring and original Building News compared the decorative metal panels with in the studied informality of its furniture arrangement, the the work of Edgar Brandt, one of the leading artists of the use of brilliantly colored accessories to accent an abstract 21 period. painting over the mantel, and simplified graphic elements Far removed in both style and distance from punctuating the door and wall planes. All of these poten- its medieval grill room was the Alamac's daringly con- tially jarring and clearly stimulating elements are harmo- ceived Congo Roof, which represented Reiss's and New niously combined to create a unified effect. Both embody York's first treatment of a tropical theme. Drawing on his precisely the characteristics of modern German decoration knowledge of both Cubism and African Art, the commis- observed by French designers between 1908 and 1910 and Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 45

Figure 10

Figure 11

The decoration of the interiors. In a sketch for a sit- Alamac's rooms, suites and ting room in one of hotel's corridors were also a part of suites (Figure #10) we can Reiss's commission, and they see its similarities to a allowed him to draw upon domestic interior (Figure #11) the principles of Modern published in the first issue of Decorative Art as they the M.A.C. applied to residential 46 Queen City Heritage used to define and create their own unique and modern Urban. Reiss, Paul Frankl, and Donald Deskey were cred- style.23 ited with presenting the designs most likely to make "a Reiss's work in residential interiors during practical contribution to an evolving Modernism."24 the 1920s ranged from hotels and apartment buildings to A few examples illustrate a less practical but individual apartments and furniture and fabrics for the equally sophisticated aspect of Reiss's work in these areas, domestic market. Much of it was highly experimental and the distinctive brand of "zig-zag" modernism which he innovative in character — including the use of many new evolved during the 1920s, drawing inspiration from native materials: in metal, aluminum and chromium; in fabrics, American motifs.25 Although a boyhood fascination with synthetic products such as rayon and Du Pont's Fabrikoid native Americans drew him to this country, the artist's first and Nemoursa; and paints and wall coverings like Duco Western trip, including Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and Muralart, an early type of Formica. The new types of and Mexico, did not take place until 1920, followed by a finishes, effects (including air-brushing), and colors which second and longer stay in Montana in 1927.26 Reiss's acad- these materials allowed were further extended by the use emic training in the use of pattern and color made him of new lighting techniques and fixtures. In addition to highly receptive to native American motifs, which increas- working as a color consultant for Du Pont's Fabrikoid and ingly found their way into his graphic and commercial Muralart product lines, during this period Reiss designed design work. The use of either a zig-zag line (chevron) or new products for many companies: fabrics for Mallinson, row of linked triangles, commonly used in the art of the Schumacher, Mosse, Martex, and Shelton Looms; furni- Blackfoot and Sioux nations, became a signature of Reiss's ture for Thonet and General Fireproofing; lighting fixtures work from the late 1920s onward.27 American, European, and modern sources all come together in the jagged composition of angles and bright colors which characterized his 1928 design for the elevator cab of the Seelig and Finkelstein's Shellball Apartments.28 Although its interior no doubt rendered vertical travel more stimulating than most residents of the building ever desired, the design would have made any one of Prague's Cubist architects proud. Sketches of metalwork designs, also related to the Shellball Apartments, demonstrate Reiss's continuing experiments in the decorative uses of metalwork and the effects of combining different metals in a single composition. His eager quest to introduce lively colors and imaginative ideas into American furniture design is represented by a sketch for a dressing-table and bench of complex angles and contrasting shades of bright yellow, red, blue, and black, which echo the vocabulary of the De Stijl movement and challenge any preconceptions concerning their form. The 1920s also marked Reiss's first commissions outside of the New York area, significantly in the great mid-western metropolis of Chicago. Holabird and Figure 12 Root, one of that city's most progressive architectural for Egli; and packaging and advertising for a wide range of firms, was linked to three of these, beginning with murals clients. His work was featured in various exhibitions spon- for the Apollo Theatre (1922-23) and ending with the sored by New York's leading department stores as well as Walden Bookshop in the Michigan Square Building the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1928 he joined a (1930). Reiss's 1928 interiors for one of Chicago's leading number of leading designers in forming their own design clubs, the Tavern, which occupied the twenty-fifth floor of showcase, the American Designers Gallery, whose first a Holabird and Root skyscraper at 333 N. Michigan exhibition was organized by Ely Jacques Kahn and Joseph Avenue, were widely praised and publicized, winning him

The use of either a zig-zag together in the jagged com- line (chevron) or row of position of angles and bright linked triangles became a sig- colors which characterized nature of Reiss's work from his 1928 design for the eleva- the late 1920s onward. tor cab of the Seelig and American, European, and Finkelstein's Shellball modern sources all come Apartments. (Figure #12) Spring 1993 The Origins of Landscape Architecture 47 which, with the addition of a thirty-one-story tower by architect Emery Roth, became the nation's second largest. As many as 3,500 guests could occupy its 2,632 rooms, and its many dining facilities were capable of serving up to 9,000 patrons at any one time. Winold Reiss Studios conceived and designed most of the public spaces in the new Tower Building, which "included the largest indoor swim- ming pool in the metropolis and the most expensive one ever built; the largest and most costly banquet facilities in the world, embracing sixteen magnificent rooms; the largest hotel ballroom in the world." The architect and historian Robert A. M. Stern has sung the praises of its ballroom, designed to hold over 3,000 people, in the prose style of Tom Wolfe: "the single most startling interior public space of the time in New York...as completed, with its myriad of colored lights articulating every facet, the ballroom was a brilliant tour-de-force, a real life version of movie-modern, a last blaring wail of jazz-age stylishness at its very best."31 His old friend Oscar Wentz described

Figure 13 a whole new list of admirers and clients from many parts of the country.29 A contemporary article in The Chicagoan described his achievement in glowing terms: "Winold Reiss, a leader in the profession of interior decoration, was given the commission. He was also given carte blanche, with John Root, of the building committee, exercising the power of veto over the designs as they were submitted. The result speaks for itself. The rooms of The Tavern are the most brilliant example of modern decorative style in the country. There is gayety and originality, without eccen- tric affectation, in every detail. The Tavern, in its physical aspect, is a work of art. And being modern art, it has a dynamic quality; it refreshes and stimulates. The visitor to this Tavern drops down to the street and to everyday life, a better workman, at whatever craft he practices, than he was before, because the colors and forms of these rooms have put a new beat into his pulse and a new vibrancy into his nerves."30 In 1930 Reiss completed extensive designs for the vast interiors of Brooklyn's Hotel St. George, Figure 14

Sketches of metalwork different metals in a single His eager quest to introduce bright yellow, red, blue, and designs also related to the composition. (Figure #13) lively colors and imaginative black. (Figure #14) Shellball Apartments, ideas into American furniture demonstrate Reiss's continu- design is represented by a ing experiments in the deco- sketch for a dressing-table rative uses of metalwork and and bench of complex angles the effects of combining and contrasting shades of 48 Queen City Heritage Reiss's stylish treatment of the entrance to the ballroom: repeal of Prohibition in December, 1933,33 and a series of "Leading to this room is a huge foyer, the feeling of space commissions from Henry Lustig for his Longchamps in a measure imparted by the 'scaping' of the carpet in restaurants34 provided Reiss's career with renewed stimulus three tones of red with diagonal lines suggesting broad vis- and visibility after 1935. tas. This same treatment is reflected in the cream ceiling In addition to their famous culinary offer- with bands of red and gold. Indirect light is softly diffused ings, the second generation of Longchamps restaurants from the ceiling and columns, casting its warm glow on enjoyed some of New York's best locations and represent- the gold and vermilion Muralart walls ornamented at inter- ed the height of stylishness: "Longchamps is not naive; its vals with metal grill work."32 The St. George constituted a is daring and sumptuous," declared the critic Talbot city within a city, a great public arena rivaled only by Hamlin in 1939.35 Lavish features introduced by the Cincinnati's Union Terminal among Reiss's works. Longchamps chain included the extensive use of mirrored The great building boom of the 1920s, which wall surfaces and indirect lighting, complex floor and ceil- had provided Reiss with so many design opportunites and ing levels, table telephone and twenty-four-hour service, commissions, came to an abrupt halt with the onset of the and receding plate glass windows which turned the restau- Depression. During the 1930s Reiss's work was more rants into outdoor cafes in good weather. The first (1935) restricted in range and harder to find. Among his papers is occupied the ground floor corner of the Chanin Building a portfolio containing dozens of elegant designs proposed diagonally across from the Chrysler Building, with lobby to the Barracini candy company, which Tjark Reiss says entrances from both 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, represent his father's attempts to obtain commissions dur- while the largest and most successful (1938) was ingenious- ing this period. His prospects improved following the ly arranged on five levels of that icon of American architec-

Figure 15

Winold Reiss Studios conceived and designed most of the public spaces in the new Tower Building including the largest ballroom in the world which was designed to hold over 3,000 people. (Figure #15) Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 49

Figure 16 ture, the Empire State Building. of a bar table. A Longchamps lobby card of the period is a The exterior of Reiss's 1941 proposal for a brilliant exercise in graphic design, exhibiting the same new bar and roof garden at the 49th Street and Madison qualities. It announces "Cocktail Time" in a colorful and Avenue Longchamps displays the chain's trademark vermil- inviting display with lettering punctuated by the same lion coloring and lettering, including the falling "S," while motif of linked triangles which Reiss had used to architec- the undulating lines which enliven its canopy and bronze tural effect in the ballroom of the Hotel St. George. The wall panels recall the early borders of the M.A.C. The bold treatment of the interiors of the Longchamps37 can be entire effect is not dissimilar to that of the Barracini candy observed in a 1946 sketch for the new retail shops of the box already illustrated: the name or sign identifying the 57th Street branch. Reiss visibly moves the patron through product or establishment has been completly integrated a gauntlet of shop windows by means of an undulating into its design; it has become a sign rather than simply pro- floor pattern and rhythmic frieze in which he returns to his viding a place for one. roots for inspiration, employing motifs almost identical to The care given to the smallest details in the those introduced a half-century earlier by Kolomon Moser, Longchamps projects, as well as a willingness to experi- the great Viennese Secession designer, in his own house.38 ment with the decorative possibilities of new materials, is The success of Lustig's and Reiss's collaboration has been demonstrated in a design sketch for the inlaid formica top summed-up in this way: "The Longchamps restaurants

Otto Wentz described Reiss's in three tones of red with stylish treatment of the diagonal lines suggesting entrance to the ballroom: broad vistas." (Figure #16) "Leading to this room is a huge foyer, the feeling of space in a measure imparted by the 'scaping' of the carpet 50 Queen City Heritage

Figure 17 brought to a middle-class audience the glittery glamor of for the "stylings" of restaurants, hotels, and commercial such highly exclusive haunts of New York's cafe society as establishments in many parts of the country. the Stork Club and El Morocco...[and] represented the By the mid-1940s at least six Reiss-designed culmination of a decade's search for an opulent and even establishments, including the Steuben Tavern, the famous playful modern language of form."39 Lindy's Restaurant, and four of the nine Longchamps, Following Lustig's sale of the restaurants in were within walking distance from Times Square and New 1946, commissions followed for three more Longchamps, York's Theater district. The average Longchamps was completed between 1950 and 1952. The first, in New York's capable of serving an average of 800 patrons at a time, Manhattan House, employed Reiss's life-long mastery of while one employed fifty bartenders. Beginning with the tropical themes to good effect; another, in Washington, D. Crillon of 1919-20, for three decades anyone dining well in C, featured native American murals and decorations; and the world's greatest metropolis, including thousands of vis- the last and least, in Philadelphia, was carried out in a itors, would have been familiar with, if not aware of, watered-down Colonial style which clearly indicates a Reiss's designs. This was also true to a lesser degree in reduction in Reiss's activity following a stroke in 1951. Chicago, with Reiss interiors at the Tavern Club, the Taken as a whole, the Longchamps commissions served a Palmer House, and the Sherman Hotel; in Los Angeles, critical role for Reiss providing him with new design oppor- with Mike Lyman's; and in cities such as Holyoke, tunities and placing his work squarely in the public eye. Massachusetts, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 1949 Reiss During the last two decades of his career, the Longchamps received a commission for Montreal's Chic-N-Coop work led to many other new commissions, large and small, Restaurant, conceived, in spite of its name, very much in

During the 1930s Reiss's work was more restricted in range and harder to find. Among his papers is a portfolio containing dozens of elegant designs proposed to the Barracini candy company. (Figure #17) Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 51

Figure 19

Figure 18

The exterior of Reiss's 1941 ing the falling 'S', while the A willingness to experiment proposal for a new bar and undulating lines which with the decorative roof garden at the 49th Street enliven its canopy and bronze possibilities of new materials, and Madison Avenue wall panels recall the early is demonstrated in a design Longchamps displays the borders of the M.A.C. sketch for the inlaid formica chain's trademark vermillion (Figure #18) top of a bar table. coloring and lettering, includ- (Figure #19) 52 Queen City Heritage

the elegant spirit of his Longchamps works.40 At the age of 1. Winold Reiss came to be much better known for his work as a por- sixty-four he proved himself to be as creative and imagina- traitist and muralist. This has been partly responsible for obscuring his reputation as a commercial artist, to which this analysis attempts tive as ever, producing stacks of sketches and drawings in to provide a brief introduction. The stigma which continued to many variant schemes for its exterior, interiors, and graphic attach itself to commercial art work in this country often threatened identity. and sometimes compromised the artist's non-commercial career.

Figure 20 This brief overview is not the place to Reiss's work as a painter and muralist, together with the training and tJieory of artistic practice which supported it, should not be viewed as attempt any final evaluation of of Reiss's contributions to a separate but rather as an integral aspect of his work in architecture American design, but has tried to bring some of them to and design. A superb education in one of Europe's most progressive more general attention. His introduction of entirely new artistic centers instilled in the young artist a firm and life-long belief uses and types of color; experimentation with new forms in the unity and equality of the arts of design, and made of him a stal- wart soldier in the battle to bring the talents of artists to the service and materials; incorporation of poster-like graphic ele- of a wider range of design problems. The Winold Reiss who disem- ments; and integration of native American decorative barked from the S.S. Imperator carried with him to America a willing- motifs represent some of the most promising areas for fur- ness to devote as much energy and ability to the design of posters, magazine covers, advertisements, fabrics, floor coverings, wallpaper, ther study and analysis. It is appropriate to close with a textiles, furniture, and interiors as to easel paintings or mural decora- recent statement by the architect Morris Lapidus, whose tions. His work in these areas ultimately may prove to have been own work is currently the object of renewed appreciation. more influential than his more traditional artistic endeavors. Tjark and Renate Reiss have been unfailing in their hospitality, encourage- His credentials include the practice of architecture in New ment, and support in regard to my interest in Reiss's design career York City from 1927 until the early 1960s, providing him a and have been very generous in helping to establish a representative thirty-year perspective of developments in American collection of his work in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Tjark Reiss, in particular, shares my opinion that design. Earlier this year, following his return from a lecture his father's contributions in this area have yet to be suitably recog- at Yale's School of Architecture, I asked Lapidus if he nized. This effort may serve, in some small measure, to correct this remembered Reiss's work and if it had had any effect on situation. While periodic access to Reiss's archives since 1987 has his own.41 Without hesitation, he admitted instances of his allowed me certain insights into his career as a designer, this can only supplement the years of careful and painstaking documentary investi- influence and recalled that, as the preceding pages have gations represented in Fred Brauen, "Winold Reiss (1886-1953): Color attempted to show: "Reiss was way ahead of all of us." and Design in the New American Art," (New York, 1980), an indis- pensable tool for anyone attempting a study of this subject. 2. The cause of Modern Decorative Art is cited repeatedly in the manifestos published by Reiss and Wentz in the M.A.C. and else- where during the next two decades. See "A Word About Modern Decorative Art," M.A.C. , vol. 1, no. 1 (September, 1915): At no time

A Longchamps lobby card of triangles which Reiss had the period is a brilliant exer- used to architectural effect in cise in graphic design. It the ballroom of the Hotel St. announces "Cocktail Time" in George. (Figure #20) a colorful and inviting display with lettering punctuated by the same motif of linked Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 53

Figure 21

Figure 22

The bold treatment of the Between 1950 and 1952 Reiss interiors of the Longchamps designed three more can be observed in a 1946 Longchamps, the first, in sketch for the new retail New York's Manhattan shops of the 57th Street House. (Figure #22) branch. (Figure #21) 54 Queen City Heritage has Decorative Art been so much the subject of discussion as at the There are no negative qualities in Modern Decorative Art. To put it present. There are two reasons for this. First, by the revival in slangily, it has the 'punch.' Its color is a joy. Its composition is Europe, especially in the German speaking countries, of decorative impressive; its general suggestive-impression one of strength, force art, i.e., of Art in its applied forms. Second, by the misinterpretation and character." of the words Decorative Art as used in the modern sense of the word 10. L. O. Duncan, "The Belle of Yesterday," The Store of Greater New and the misunderstandings arising therefrom....Modern artists wit- Tork (August, 1939): "Her lines are no longer modish although when tingly or unwittingly have changed the meaning of the words she was opened to public view in 1915, she was the first modern store "Decorative Art." In their meaning of Decorative Art they seek to in America. A great howl went up from the designers of that period. express in a form or series of forms, a certain feeling — this feeling They sneered and said that she was too extreme, almost decadent. they call decorative. The feeling expresses itself through strong lines Sneerers told architect Winold Reiss to take her back to Paris." and broad colors. Sometimes the colors are very bold, even crude and 11. R. R. Palmer and Joel Colton, A History of the Modern World hard in combination. Sometimes they are soft and harmonious, but (New York, 1965), p. 686. always the same quality runs through all; the general effect is big, 12. Brauen "Winold Reiss," p. 17, reports that Otto Baumgarten broad, and simple.— The bigger and simpler the effect, the more reached New York in 1908, after working in Paris and London, rising decorative the work. through the ranks to become commis at the Plaza before opening the

3. See Robert E. Irwin, "Posters and Motion Pictures,t Modern Art Restaurant Voisin in 1913. Collector (M.A.C.) , vol. 1, no. 2 (October, 1915). Irwin was an exec- 13. Brauen, "Winold Reiss," pp. 18, 21, 25-26, has painstakingly traced utive in the Poster Division of Metro Pictures Corporation. many of these references. See also Robert A. M. Stern, Gregory 4. The New York Times Magazine, March 10,1929, p. 14. Gilmartin, and Thomas Mellins, New Tork 1930: Architecture and 5. Tjark and Renate Reiss possess a copy of this rare amateur publica- Urbanism betweeen the two World Wars (New York, 1987), pp. 283-84: tion, whose cover, borders, and illustrations were designed by Winold In 1920 Reiss had pioneered a less scenographic restaurant design in Reiss in a manner inspired more by the Jugendstil and the work of New York at the Crillon Restaurant at 15 East Forty-eighth Street, Charles Rennie Mackintosh than the later Munich School. Reiss also which he decorated in what Edwin Avery Park described seven years contributed a number of poems to Jungvolk which demonstrate his later as a "decidedly modern and thoroughly American taste, using romantic sensibilities. flat surfaces, broad and colorful painted decoration, based on the pat- 6. Friedrich Achleitner, Osterreichische Architektur im 20. terns found in Navajo blankets and Indian pottery." Jahrhundert, Ein Fiihrer in drei Bdnden , vol. 3, pt. 1 (Vienna: 14. Brauen, "Winold Reiss," p. 25 cites both Beverly Smith in the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, 1990): 93-94, illustrates comparable dis- American Magazine 103 (December 1925), pp. 177-78, describing the tinctive undulating bands employed by the architect Otto Wagner to initial Crillon as "the first really modernistic interior in America, decorate the exterior of Vienna's Leopoldstadt railway station, ca. which made a great stir and won him [Reiss] other important com- 1904-1908, showing the motif as a part of the contemporary design missions," and Margaret Breuning, "Tendencies in mural decora- vocabulary. Reiss never visited Vienna, but he employed this motif to tions," International Studio 82 (December 1925), p. 177-178: "About decorate the interiors and exteriors of many of his own buildings, six years ago Mr. Reiss decorated the Crillon Restaurant and created sometimes in mosaic, as in the facade of the Restaurant Longchamps quite a flutter in the dovecots by his colorful work. Among other fea- at 59th and Madison Avenue of 1939. tures of this building was a room treated in modernistic style and 7. This was perhaps adopted either from the work of his colleague prismatic hues." Ilonka Karasz or from Frank Nuderscher, who both employed the 15. Brauen, "Winold Reiss," p. 83, n. 40. motif in early issues of the M.A. C. 16. "Let the Motif be Modern, Advises Expert," An Interview with 8. Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds., Allgemeines Lexikon der Winold Reiss, The Restaurant Man (April, 1931), 14: "When Mr. Bildenden Kunstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 9 (Leipzig, 1978), pp. 280-281. Known not only for his posters, Diez provided illustrations for the famous publication Jugend and designed book covers and bookplates, advertising art, as well as mural decorations and mosaics for the new buildings of the University of Munich, the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, the Nurnberg train station, and other public buildings. 9. "A Word About Modern Decorative Art," M.A.C. , vol. 1, no. 1 (September, 1915), offers the following description referring to examples which the publication intends to illustrate: "Whether a subject is treated with the large expanses of flat color technic, generally known as the German Poster style, or with much detailed work, matters not. What matters, is the broad and simple feeling which finds its expres- sion in the general effect. If there are many details, they must be sub- ordinated to the effect in such a way that they do not weaken or dis- turb it." In a subsequent article in the same issue, "Modern Decorative Art for the Advertiser," by Raymond Cavanaugh, the author insists that "the claims of Modern Decorative Art for commercial recognition must be given the fullest consideration," exhort- ing the reader with the confidence of the newly converted: "Let him [the advertiser] turn to a poster of today, executed in the true spirit of Modern Decorative Art, and he will find positive virtues only. Figure 23

The Manhattan House design employed Reiss's life-long mastery of tropical themes. (Figure #23) Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 55

Reiss is called in to design a restaurant, he usually also designs the who "has made up his mind at the start that he would spare no furniture and even the menu cards and meal check, for he believes expense in making the new Alamac the very finest possible and he has that all of these combinations are instrumental in expressing the char- shown his excellent taste by selecting Mr. Reiss for this important acter of the establishment." commission." 17. "Let the Motif be Modern, Advises Expert," An Interview with 19. Margaret Breuning, "Tendencies in mural decorations," Winold Reiss, The Restaurant Man (April, 1931), 15: "The Crillon's International Studio 82 (December 1925), pp. 177-178. owner, Mr. Baumgartner [sic], incidentally, is a partner of Mr. Reiss 20. Eugene Clute, "Today's Craftsmanship in Combining Metals," in the restaurant decorating division of the latter's studios. An an Architecture (October, 1934), pp. 203-205. unusually effective combination they make — Mr. Reiss the artist and 21. "A Modern Decorator in New York," Architect and Building decorator and Mr. Baumgartner being a successful restauranteur." News (November 26,1926), p. 634. "Winold Reiss Co. Doing Decorations for Alamac," The 22. Stern, New Tork 1930, p.283.

Figure 24

Restauranteur (August 11, 1923), p. 8, stated that the upper 23. Yvonne Brunhammer and Suzanne Tise, The Decorative Arts in Broadway Building, nearing completion, was decorated by "the France: La Societe des artistes decorateurs, 1900-1942 (New York, 1990): Winold Reiss Decorating Company, of which Otto J. Baumgarten, 26: "A dramatic change in the style of the works exhibited in the the noted restauranteur, is the business manager." Baumgarten was salons of the Societe came about as the result of a second manifesta- identified as a partner as well as business manager of the Reiss firm, tion of the Munich Werkstatten — their appearance in Paris at the and as the "proprietor of the famous Crillon Restaurant...one of the Salon d'Automne in 1910. Since 1900 the growing artistic and com- most beautiful examples of decorating to be found anywhere....When mercial success of the Werkstatten had been a cause for alarm in it is taken into consideration that Mr. Baumgarten is an experienced France. There was even more concern after an important applied arts hotel and restaurant man who thoroughly understands this business, exhibition in Munich in 1908, when the French delegation, which his position as general business manager for the Winold Reiss included one of the founders of the Societe des artistes decorateurs, Decorating Company makes this company especially fitted to handle Rupert Carabin, returned to report that the German exhibition repre- satisfactorily all hotel and restaurant work." sented for France an "artistic and commercial Sedan." The delegation 18. "Winold Reiss Co. Doing Decorations for Alamac," The later reported to a conference on the decorative arts in Nancy that Restauranteur (August 11, 1923), p. 8, identified Latz as a developer the long-sought-after modern style had not been born in France, but

At the age of sixty-four he interiors of Chic-N-Coop in proved himself to be as Montreal. (Figure #24) creative and imaginative as ever, producing stacks of sketches and drawings in many variant schemes for the exterior, graphic identity, and 56 Queen City Heritage

in Germany: "The ruling principle that inspires the young German "Decorating the Modern Way," Restaurant Management (July, school is to create harmonious ensembles through a collaboration of 1929), pp. 37ff.; The American Architect (January 5, 1929), p. 36ff; sculpture, painting and architecture, and the group has endeavoured and "Art Moderne in Chicago's Tavern Club," National Hotel to realize this by reforming the aesthetics of the home to make the Review (April 27,1929), pp. 62ff. modern house a combined work of art, a practical construction of 31. New Tork 1930, pp. 214-15: The 11,000-square-feet, thirty-one-feet simple and dignified beauty...Thanks to the simplicity which they high ballroom, was reputedly the largest in the United States, capable intentionally seek, they have succeeded in creating furniture designs of holding more than 3,000 people. of good quality and irreproachable form that may be executed entire- 32. O.W. Wentz, "The St. George Goes Modern: In this largest hotel ly by machine, so that they are within the reach of modest budgets. It of Greater New York are some fine examples of contemporary deco- was after the delegation returned from Munich in 1908 that Frantz ration," The DuPont Magazine (1930), pp. 14-15. Jourdain...invited the Munich Werkstatten to exhibit in Paris in 33. Stern, New Tork 1930, pp. 283-84: "After Prohibition's repeal Reiss 1910.... When the Salon opened in October, the Munich group... designed a white, blue, and black cocktail lounge for the Crillon that filled eighteen rooms with the finest products of modern German was highly regarded by [Lewis] Mumford, who found it conducive to decorative artists organized on the theme of the 'House of an Art drinking yet not 'so exciting that you would get drunk at the first Lover'...the interiors were not particularly innovative, but they smell of a Martini. Moreover, the Crillon demonstrates what the demonstrated a sobriety, unity of design and sophistication that com- more vital modern architects, like Wright and Oud, always knew: that pletely surprised the French public. The colour schemes were equally architecture designed for our present style of living does not need to unexpected: bright oranges, cobalt blue and brilliant greens — hues seek its exponents and admirers among the color blind.'" virtually unknown in French decoration." 34. The New York city chain grew from six locations in 1935 to at 24. Stern, New Tork 1930, p. 338. least ten in 1946. Fred Brauen, "Winold Reiss," pp. 48-54, 70, has 25."A Modern Decorator in New York," Architect and Building carefully detailed this evolution. News (November 26, 1926), pp. 632-34: "For the inspiration of his 35. The respected critic and historian Talbot Hamlin drew attention decorative motifs, however, Mr. Reiss has paid a good deal of atten- to Reiss's achievements in the Longchamps restaurants in an article tion to the work of the American Indian and Aztec sculpture. entitled "Some Restaurants and Recent Shops" in the widely-read Probably as a foreigner he surveys the field of American inspirational architectural periodical Pencil Points (later Progressive Architecture) 20 sources with a fresh eye, and, like one or two other artists, has been (August, 1939), pp. 485-508. Hamlin described the problem of design- astonished at the richness of Aztec art which can not only be consid- ing a modern restaurant as a difficult one: "to provide the maximum ered an indigenous but which contain boundless suggestions for seating accommodation within a limited area, and also surround the development...Winold Reiss works in his New York studio in con- patrons with an atmosphere which will make them forget the small junction with his brother, who is a sculptor, and who shares enthusi- amount of space they occupy and give the the illusion, if not of priva- asm for Mexican and Indian work. Both brothers feel that native art cy, at least of intimacy, in surroundings which are gay and has been neglected in favour of imported details, and that in Indian cheerful...the idea is to furnish lots of color, to break up the greater work is revealed a sense of pattern which is in itself an inspiration. number of surfaces so as to produce an agreeable sense of complexity, Certainly some of the vermillion, yellow and green interiors of the and to use mirrors to create the illusion of increased size" concluding Crillon restaurants in New York show a strong Indian suggestion." that the more recent Longchamps, designed by Reiss, "have attained, 26. "Winold Reiss - May 1913," typescript biographical sketch, its seems to me, a remarkable success." Collection of Tjark and Renate Reiss. 36. Except for its beginnings in the MA.C, it has been beyond the 27. Stern, New Tork 1930, pp. 283-84: In 1920 Reiss had pioneered a scope of this analyis to present in any depth Reiss's work in the area less scenographic restaurant design in New York at the Crillon of graphic design. He contributed to a number of leading American Restaurant at 15 East Forty-eighth Street, which he decorated in what periodicals, including Scribner's and Fortune, in addition to popular Edwin Avery Park described seven years later as a "decidedly modern illustrations, and was a fine printmaker. His most influential work, and thoroughly American taste, using flat surfaces, broad and colorful however, was in interior design and packaging. painted decoration, based on the patterns found in Navajo blankets 37. According to Tjark Reiss, the Longchamps colors of vermillion, and Indian pottery." The zig-zag or chevron motif first appears com- black, and gold, used here, were the same as those in the silks monly throughout Reiss's designs for the interiors of the Alamac designed by Reiss for Henry Lustig's racing stable. Brauen, "Winold Hotel, insinuating itself successfully into both his medieval and Reiss," p. 48, repeats this. African themes. After the middle twenties it occurs increasingly in the 38. Vienna 1900, auction catalog, Sotheby's, London (September 23, distinctive advertisements for the Restaurant Crillon and later in 1993), no. 53, ca. 1902. those for the Longchamps chain, (fig. 20). 39. Stern, New Tork 1930, p. 285. 28. American Architect (February 5,1929), p. 173. 40. "le plus chic, le plus luxueux, le plus original lounge de 29. As late as 1941 his earlier work on the Tavern Club led to a com- Montreal," Le Canada, December 29,1949. mission from the architectural firm of Neville & Sharp to design a 41. Telephone interview, February, 1993, prompted by similarities new bar and dining room for Kansas City's Hotel President. One of observed between Reiss's design for the Empire State Building the architects wrote to Reiss, recalling: "I remember having seen the Longchamps (1938) and the interiors of Miami's Hotel murals you did for the Tavern Club in the 333 Michigan Avenue Fontainebleau, designed by Lapidus. Building in Chicago, some years ago..," Neville & Sharp to Reiss, February 13,1941, Collection of Tjark and Renate Reiss. 30. Charles Collins, "Floreat Taberna! Temple of the Gay Heart and the Quickened Mind," The Chicagoan (1928), pp. llff. Other contemporary accounts included: Athena Robbins, "A Town Club Decorated in the Modern Style," Good Furniture Magazine (March, 1929), pp. 129ff.;"The Tavern Club at 333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago," The Architectural Record (February, 1929), pp. 163-66; Summer/Fall 1993 A Pioneer of Modern Design 57

Illustrations: Figure #18. Winold Reiss Studios. "Sketch perspective of Proposed New Bar & Roof Garden, Restaurant Longchamps, 49th Street & Figure #1. Julius Diez. Miinchen 1908 Ausstellung. Poster. Color lith- Madison Avenue." Graphite and colored pencil on paper, 1920s. ograph. Poster Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library Collection of Tjark and Renate Reiss. of Congress. Figure #19. Winold Reiss. Formica table top. Graphite and tempera Figure #2. Winold Reiss. Cover, Modern Art Collector (M.A.C.) on paper, 1930s. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of (New York), vol. 1, no.l, (September, 1915). Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #3. Winold Reiss. Cover, Modern Art Collector (M.A.C.) Figure #20. Winold Reiss Studios. Lobby card: "Cocktail Time, (New York), vol. 1, no.10, (ca. 1917). Restaurant Longchamps." Print, ca. 1935-45. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss. Figure #4. Winold Reiss. Student Supplement, Modern Art Collector (M.A.C.) (New York), vol. 1, no.4, (December, 1915). Figure #21. Winold Reiss Studios. Retail Store, Restaurant Longchamps, 57th Street. Graphite and tempera on paper, February Figure #5. Winold Reiss. Commercial Art Supplement, Modern Art 1946. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Collector (M.A.C.) (New York), vol. 1, no.3, (November, 1915). Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #6. Winold Reiss. Busy Lady Bakery. Graphite and ink on Figure #22. Winold Reiss Studios. Restaurant Longchamps, paper, ca. 1919. Prints and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Manhattan House, 53 Third Avenue. Graphite and tempera on paper, Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss. 1950. Collection of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #7. Winold Reiss. Interior Design Supplement, Modern Art Figure #23. Winold Reiss Studios. Palm decoration, unidentified Collector (M.A.C.) (New York), vol. 1, no. 2, (October, 1915). restaurant. Graphite and tempera on paper, 1940s. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Figure #8. Winold Reiss. A Modern Bakery, Modern Art Collector Reiss. (M.A.C.) (New York), vol. 1, no. 4, (December, 1915). Figure #24. Winold Reiss Studios. Chic-N-Coop Restaurant, Figure #9. Winold Reiss. Restaurant Crillon. Tempera on paper, ca. Montreal. Graphite and tempera on paper, February 1949. Collection 1919. Prints and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Gift of of Tjark and Renate Reiss. Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #10. Winold Reiss. Alamac Hotel. Graphite and tempera on paper, ca. 1923. Prints and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #11. E. H. and G. G. Aschermann. dining room, Forest Hills, Long Island, Modern Art Collector (M.A.C.) (New York), vol. 1, no. 4, (December, 1915).

Figure #12. Winold Reiss. Elevator cab, Shellball Apartments, Kew Garden, Long Island. Graphite and tempera on paper, ca. 1928. Prints and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #13. Winold Reiss. Ironwork. Graphite and tempera on paper, 1920s. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #14. Winold Reiss. Dressing table. Graphite and tempera on paper, 1920s. Collection of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #15. Winold Reiss. Ballroom, Hotel St. George, Brooklyn. Photograph, ca. 1930. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #16. Winold Reiss. Foyer, Ballroom, Hotel St. George, Brooklyn. Photograph, ca. 1930. Prints and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Gift of Tjark and Renate Reiss.

Figure #17. Winold Reiss. Barricini candy box. Graphite and tempera on paper, 1930s. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Deposit of Tjark and Renate Reiss.