Wasmuth Portfolio

The Wasmuth portfolio is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

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Titled "Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Entwurfe", it was published in Germany in 1910 by the Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright. It contained plans and perspectives (in linework only) of buildings from 1893-1909.

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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.

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Wright's early influence in northern Europe is unquestionable: Le Corbusier is known to have had and shared a copy, Austrian architects Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra both re-located to the United States in hopes of working for Wright, and one look at Willem Marinus Dudok's 1924 Hilversum Town Hall betrays its origins. 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 Alofsin proves that Wright was heavily influenced by the work of the Vienna Secession.

Related Topics:
Le Corbusier - Rudolf Schindler - Richard Neutra - Willem Marinus Dudok - Anthony Alofsin - Vienna Secession

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Approximately half of the images in the Wasmuth portfolio are the work of architect and one-time Wright assistant Marion Mahony Griffin, whose visual style has a lot to do with its success.

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