Lot 453: GEORGE MANN NIEDECKEN

PROPERTY FROM A WASHINGTON, D.C., COLLECTION

LANDSCAPE MURAL FROM THE DINING ROOM OF THE SEDGWICK BRINSMAID HOUSE, DES MOINES, IOWA

measurements note
34 x 84 in. (86.4 x 213.4 cm) approximately

ca. 1902

oil on canvas

Scott Elliott, Frank Lloyd Wright and Viollet-le-Duc: Organic Architecture and Design from 1850 to 1950, Chicago, 1986, p. 85
Sheila Schwartz, ed., From Architecture to Object: Masterworks of the American Arts & Crafts Movement, New York, 1989, p. 97

PROVENANCE

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York

EXHIBITED

From Architecture to Object: Masterworks of the American Arts & Crafts Movement, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, October 7-November 18, 1989
Struve Gallery, Chicago, December 15, 1989-January 22, 1990

LITERATURE

Wesley I. Shink, ''The Residence in Des Moines,'' The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 29, 1970, pp. 56-59 (for a detailed discussion of the Brinsmaid House)
Mary Lackritz Gray, A Guide to Chicago's Murals, Chicago, 2001, pp. 14-15 (for another landscape mural from this commission)

NOTE

This work was originally part of a series of decorative murals executed by Niedecken for the dining room of the Sedgwick Brinsmaid House. The mural depicts a vast midwestern forest, articulated in muted tones of brown and green. Period photographs show Niedecken's murals installed above the wainscoting in the dining room. Designed by architect Arthur Heun in 1902, the Brinsmaid residence is one of the earliest Prairie-style houses, pre-dating many of Frank Lloyd Wright's early architectural commissions.

Sotheby's wishes to thank Cheryl Robertson, independent curator and museum consultant, for providing these research citations on the Brinsmaid House.