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NLA News - home April 2003 Volume XIII Number 7
Visions Splendid
sepia-toned photograph of Marion Mahony Griffin c.1935. In: Portraits of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin 1918, 1935

Portrait of Marion Mahony Griffin c.1935
sepia-toned photograph; 14.7 x 10.1 cm
In: Portraits of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin 1918, 1935
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23379384

Christopher Vernon examines four newly acquired architectural drawings by Marion Mahony Griffin, which highlight the evolution of her distinctive graphic technique

The National Library of Australia has recently acquired a selection of four architectural renderings by Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961). In these striking drawings, Marion beautifully recorded her design visions—and those of her husband and professional partner, Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937)—for three different buildings in their native United States and a fourth in Australia. The significance of the newly acquired renderings is two-fold. Not only do the drawings document architectural propositions, but they also represent works of graphic art in themselves. As such, they register the evolution of Marion’s graphic technique.

Marion Mahony Griffin is best  known in Australia for the celebrated ensemble of drawings she and Walter submitted to the 1912 international design competition for the federal capital. Indeed, Marion’s drawings proved compelling and undoubtedly influenced the decision to award their entry first prize. Even before the Canberra competition, however, Marion had already won acclaim for her artistic talents. Underscoring the importance of the Library’s acquisition is the fact that Marion’s American drawings are not so familiar to Australian audiences.

In the opening decades of the twentieth century, the Griffins’ home town of Chicago was a burgeoning metropolis known for its innovative architecture. Importantly, the graphic techniques employed to depict this architecture were no less novel. A leader in this new artistic development, Marion gained early recognition with her drawings made for Frank Lloyd Wright. Working with the legendary architect from 1895 until 1909, she developed a distinctive graphic technique informed by Japanese graphic arts. During this period, Marion came to portray Wright’s architecture as characteristically set amidst idealised gardens. Within these images, typically framed by foliage, buildings appear as one with the natural world. By 1906, Marion’s technique was mature and she possessed the greatest rendering facility of anyone in Wright’s office, including co-worker Burley Griffin. That year, however, Griffin left Wright to establish his own Chicago office. Marion’s path reconverged with Walter’s in 1909, when she took up a new position working in the same building. By the year’s end, she and Walter had joined their practices and the couple would wed in 1911.

Watercolour and black ink architectural drawing of 'William F. Tempel Dwelling, Kenilworth, Illinois' 1910 by Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937)
William F. Tempel Dwelling, Kenilworth, Illinois 1910
architectural drawing: lithograph, black ink, watercolour and gouache, black and pen over pencil on buff linen; image 86 x 51 cm, on sheet 118 x 53.1 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23594267
Watercolour and black ink architectural drawing of 'Niles Club Company, Club House, Niles, Michigan, United States'  c.1911 by Walter Burley Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937)
Niles Club Company, Club House, Niles, Michigan, United States c.1911
architectural drawing: lithograph, black ink, watercolour and gouache on buff linen; image 86.7 x 51.2 cm, on sheet 116.8 x 52.8 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23594250

 

As Marion recounted in her unpublished memoirs, ‘The Magic of America’, once she began working with Walter, she soon decided to redraw some of his past and current projects for promotional and exhibition purposes. Departing from Walter’s (and Wright’s) graphic convention, she conceived an alternative method of presentation. Employing a new format, Marion assembled all the individual drawings typically required to explain a building’s design—plans, sections, perspective views and decorative details—to form a larger composition. Drawn in ink on a single sheet, the outcome was, as she described it, a ‘unified mural panel’. Next, original drawings were reproduced onto fabric such as linen, satin or silk sateen (sometimes coloured), or, occasionally, heavy paper. Finally, the prints were coloured with transparent watercolour washes, gouache (often including gold) and Japanese photographic dyes, to produce an almost luminescent effect. The rich colouration of Marion’s renderings was, according to a colleague, ‘looked upon at that time as extremely radical’. Two of the Library’s drawings were produced by this technique.

The first rendering, printed on heavy paper, portrays Walter’s 1909 design for the Niles Club Company’s clubhouse at Niles, Michigan (the building still stands, albeit in altered form). The hand-coloured perspective view that crowns the composition is especially notable. In the graphic format she designed for Walter’s work, Marion retained the foliate surrounds typical of her earlier drawings for Wright. Now, however, these borders were no longer exclusively a graphic device. Instead, as in the Niles perspective, they record actual landscape design proposals. The clubhouse is adorned with vine-clad trellis and rests solidly in a luxuriant garden. Most likely, this rendering was prepared expressly for exhibition purposes. Labels affixed to the back of the print confirm that it was displayed twice in 1912: once in the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Architectural Club’s annual exhibition and again in the South Bend (Indiana) Club’s show. (According to a label on the front of the drawing, it was entry number ‘86’ in one of these displays.) Given the ephemeral nature of exhibitions and their related documentation, it is remarkable in itself that these labels have survived.

Architectural drawing of 'Joshua G. Melson Residence, Rock Crest, Mason City, Iowa' 1912 by Walter Burley Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937)|
Joshua G. Melson Residence, Rock Crest, Mason City, Iowa 1912
architectural drawing: black ink over pencil on buff paper; 90 x 56.5 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23594277

 

The second rendering, a hand-tinted print on linen, depicts a speculative residential design for William F. Tempel. A real estate developer in suburban Chicago, Tempel was one of the Griffins’ most important American clients. This 1910 design, one of a series prepared for the developer, is particularly significant. Stylistically, it registers Marion and Walter’s professional union. Shortly after combining their practices, the couple set their now collaborative architecture on a new trajectory. As a result, their buildings became more abstract, planar and monolithic—all attributes of this Tempel design. Although this example was not built, the next year Walter and two partners formed the Solid Rock House Company to construct similar houses.

In 1913, Tempel joined Walter as two of the founding directors of the Community Development Company. One of the firm’s largest projects was the Trier Centre Neighbourhood, a new community designed by Walter, where he and Marion planned to live had not their move to Australia intervened. The house portrayed in the Library’s drawing may have been envisaged for this suburban enterprise. Later at Castlecrag, Sydney (Trier Centre’s Australian counterpart), Walter similarly assumed dual roles as architect and developer. 

The Tempel drawing’s composition of floor plans and an exterior perspective is visually anchored by an ‘Interior of Living Room’ vignette at the bottom of the sheet. Importantly, this interior perspective appears to be an original ink drawing (with a visible pencil underlay), added to the lithograph after printing. As with the Niles rendering, the Tempel print was also publicly displayed. A label from the 1910 joint exhibition of Cleveland’s (Ohio) Architectural Club and its Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is attached on the verso. The label, completed by Walter, also records that the drawing was insured for US$25.00. This valuation, a significant sum in 1910, attests to the importance that the Griffins attached to such renderings.

For the Griffins and their peers, participation in the annual exhibitions of the network of American architectural clubs was vital to gain wider professional visibility, if not additional clientele. Indeed, when visiting Australia for the first time in 1913, Walter brought along a selection of Marion’s American renderings in anticipation of their public display. When exhibited in Melbourne, Marion’s drawings caused a professional sensation. As it had in America, her technique proved novel compared to local convention, prompting a critic to reflect that ‘one cannot easily forget’ Marion’s ‘remarkable’ renderings. The Library’s Tempel drawing may actually have been included in the Melbourne show.

The Library’s third American drawing portrays the Griffins’ 1912 house for Joshua G. Melson, arguably their domestic masterwork in that country. Completed in 1913, and recently restored, the dwelling is located within a community, also of their own design: Rock Crest–Rock Glen at Mason City, Iowa. Sheathed in rough stone, the cubic house is built into a limestone bluff and overlooks a stream. Unlike the Library’s Niles and Tempel renderings, this representation of the Melson house is an original ink line drawing on paper—not a print. The sheet’s composition includes ground and first floor plans, a side elevation and, as its focal point, a striking front elevation vignette. Contained within a Japanesque frame of trees and shrubs, this elevation depicts the house set within the bluff (made newly verdant by planting) and its reflection in the stream below. Increasing its significance, this drawing is unfamiliar even to American audiences and is not known to have been published or exhibited by the Griffins.

watercolour and black ink of 'Reverend Cheok Hong Cheong Dwelling, Castlecrag, Sydney, New South Wales c.1921' by Walter Burley Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937)
Reverend Cheok Hong Cheong Dwelling, Castlecrag, Sydney, New South Wales c.1921
architectural drawing: lithograph, black ink, watercolour and gouache on silk sateen; image 107.5 x 52.9 cm, on sheet 119 x 52.9 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23594241

 

Remarkably, Marion’s conception of a ‘unified mural panel’ method did not mark the end of her artistic development. Up until 1911, her application of the technique was limited largely to the portrayal of individual buildings. The announcement of the Canberra competition that year, however, became a catalyst for re-invention. Entry in the competition would now require Marion to represent an entire city set within a wider, continuous landscape. The Griffins’ victory affirms that Marion was more than equal to the task.

After Walter’s official association with Canberra ended in 1920, he and Marion poured their creative energies into developing Castlecrag. Here, they not only designed the community’s layout and landscape, but also the houses to be contained within its precincts. One of these residential designs is recorded in the Library’s final drawing. Lithographed on silk sateen, this expansive coloured print documents the Griffins’ 1922 design for client Cheok Hong Cheong (the house still stands at Lot 53, The Parapet). Cheong was also a shareholder in the Griffins’ Greater Sydney Development Association, Castlecrag’s corporate developer. In this exterior perspective, Cheong’s compact house is viewed from the bottom of its sloping site, through a veil of trees. With the house portrayed as a diminutive element within a lush bush garden, this image beautifully encapsulates Walter and Marion’s design ideal in which architecture defers to the primacy of nature.

Like its American counterparts, the Cheong print may have been used for promotional purposes. A period photograph showing the front of the Griffins’ office building in Sydney confirms their practice of mounting drawings (including earlier American examples) in the windows to promote Castlecrag land sales. ‘Castlecrag’ was amongst the opaque text across the office’s street-front glazing. Across the bottom of the Cheong print, the letters ‘CRAG’ (a fragment of the word ‘Castlecrag’) are faintly legible. If this print was used as a window display, then this lettering may have been the accidental result of prolonged sun exposure.

The acquisition of these splendid examples of Marion Mahony Griffin’s art enhances the Library’s significance as a repository of records documenting Marion’s and Walter’s careers. The drawings join the Library’s other related holdings, most notably the Peter Harrison Papers (MS 8347), the Donald Leslie Johnson Collection of Walter and Marion Griffin Documents (MS 7817) and a microfilm copy of Marion’s unpublished autobiography, ‘The Magic of America’. In addition, there are original and printed maps of the Griffins’ Canberra design in the Map Collection, and a number of important photographic portraits of the Griffins in the Pictures Collection. Those seeking to learn more of the lives and works of this remarkable couple will be richly rewarded by consulting the collections of the National Library of Australia.

CHRISTOPHER VERNON is Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the University of Western Australia and Design Advisor to the National Capital Authority

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