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TheWasmuth Portfolio (1910) is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of the American architectFrank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) and his studio.
TitledAusgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, it was published in Germany in 1911 by theBerlin publisherErnst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright. It contained plans and perspectives (in linework only) of buildings designed between 1893 and 1909.[1] It was the first publication of any of Wright's work to appear anywhere in the world. 500 copies reserved for American distribution burned in theTaliesin fire, delaying full recognition of Wright's accomplishment in his native land for years to come.
The portfolio is significant as a link between Wright's pioneering American architecture, and the first generation ofmodernist 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 European architectural history at first hand.
Wright's early influence in northern Europe is unquestionable:Le Corbusier is known to have had and shared a copy; Czech architectAntonin Raymond and Austrian architectsRudolf Schindler andRichard Neutra all re-located to the United States in hopes of working for Wright; and one look atWillem Marinus Dudok's 1924Hilversum Town Hall betrays its origins. At the time of the portfolio's publication, three influential architects of the twentieth century (Le Corbusier,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe andWalter Gropius) were all working essentially as apprentices in the atelier ofPeter Behrens in Berlin,[2] where it has been said that work stopped for the day when the portfolio arrived.[citation needed] 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 scholarAnthony Alofsin suggests that Wright was heavily influenced by the work of theVienna Secession.[citation needed] In turn, the DutchDe Stijl 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 theWasmuth Portfolio are believed to be reworked renderings by the architect and one-time Wright assistantMarion Mahony Griffin, whose visual style has a lot to do with the publication's success.[3]
As of 2009, thePortfolio is in print asDrawings and Plans of Frank Lloyd Wright: The Early Period (1893–1909).[4]
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