Frank Lloyd Wright

Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, New York, circa 1903-1905
Richard Feigen Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa late 1960s

Robert Judson Clark, ed., The Arts and Crafts Movement in America 1876-1916, Princeton, 1972, p. 74
David A. Hanks, The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 1979, pl. 8
Brian A. Spencer, ed., The Prairie School Tradition, New York, 1979, p. 59
The Early Work of Frank Lloyd Wright: The "Ausgeführte Bauten" of 1911, New York, 1982, p. 101 (for the design exhibited in the Chicago Architectural Club 20th Annual, including Exhibition of Frank Lloyd Wright at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1907) 
David A. Hanks, Frank Lloyd Wright: Preserving an Architectural Heritage, Decorative Designs from the Domino's Pizza Collection, New York, 1989, p. 55 (for an example of the design in the Domino's Pizza Collection)
Leslie Green Bowman, American Arts & Crafts; Virtue in Design, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990, p. 222 (for a variant of the design)
Thomas A. Heinz, Frank Lloyd Wright Glass Art, London, 1994, pp. 96  and 98 (for the design in situ)
Diane Maddex, 50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 1999, p. 80
Jack Quinan, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright: Windows of the Darwin D. Martin House, exh. cat., Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, 1999, p. 12
Julie L. Sloan, Light Screens: The Complete Leaded-Glass Windows of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 2001, pp. 257-263 (for a discussion of the Darwin D. Martin House), 257 (for the design in situ), 258 (for a variant of the design in situ) and 259 (for a variant and a drawing of the design)
Wendy Kaplan, The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2004, p. 263 (for a variant of the design)
Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, New York, 2004, pp. 132 and 135 (for a variant of the design)
Karen Livingstone and Linda Parry, eds., International Arts and Crafts, exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2005, p. 171
Judith A. Barter, Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago, Chicago, 2009, p. 185
Eric Jackson-Forsberg, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright: Art Glass of the Martin House Complex, Petaluma, CA, 2009, pp. 43, 55, 80-82 and 84 (for the design and variants)
Kathryn Smith, Wright on Exhibit: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architectural Exhibitions, Princeton, 2017, p. 19 (for the design exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago exhibition, 1907)

Overall in excellent and stable condition. The interior and exterior surfaces of the window have been sensitively cleaned by a leading professional conservator specializing in stained glass windows. The panel with some minor surface soiling to the adjacent contours of the window caming, and with some occasional very light surface scratches. A few tiles with small clamshell chips to the edges, not visually detractive. With four tiles dispersed throughout with small and minor hairline cracks, all stable and not visually detractive. The zinc cames display a deep black-grey coloration, with expected light surface wear and scattered areas of discoloration and oxidation. The perimeter cames of the window with discolorations likely from a prior installation, not visible when installed in a frame. One horizontal came in the lower right quadrant above the right-most flower pot with a slight bend. The catalogue photographs show this panel with remitted back light (versus reflected front light). When seen with reflected front light, the iridized glass displays a wide range of luminous jewel-tone hues. Please feel welcome to contact the department for additional photographs showing the window with reflected front light. An exceptional example of Wright's iconic "Tree of Life" motif with a stunning selection of opalescent, iridized and gilt glass. Please note that this window is presently installed in a later painted wood frame that will be made available to the successful buyer.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Along with the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, IL (1902-1904), the Darwin D. Martin Complex in Buffalo, NY (1903-1905), is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most extraordinary structures of the Prairie period (1901-1909).  The complex included six individual buildings: the Martin House, the George Barton House, the Martin Gardner’s house, and the Martin House outbuildings (carriage house, conservatory, and pergola).  All had stained-glass windows of at least fifteen different designs—two-thirds of which decorated the Martin House alone—totaling almost four hundred windows.

The most iconic of the Martin House designs is known widely as the “Tree of Life.” The house contained as many as twenty-five variations of this pattern—changes mostly in overall size, but also in pattern between those positioned on the second and first floors. Over fifty windows were made in the “Tree of Life” design and its variants. Most were for the second-floor bedrooms. The present lot (from the earliest group of windows designed for the second floor) represents Wright’s most elaborate variant. Made mostly of clear glass, the “trees” are defined by delicate brass-plated came. Tiny sparkling squares of iridized green and amber glass form the leaves, with large warm yellow squares at the bottom forming planters.  Later, in 1909, Wright revised this design by eliminating the large yellow squares in the lower register.  This design adaptation was at the insistence of Darwin Martin, who requested a simpler, more transparent design for the first floor Reception Room to allow for a more open viewpoint to the exterior. The drawing presented here shows the evolution of the design, with the lower square planters struck from the composition.

The name “Tree of Life” now associated with this window seems to have been applied to it only after 1968, beginning with an exhibition at the Richard Feigen Gallery in New York.  Wright himself referred to it only as the “second-floor design.” Similarly, the principal first-floor pattern is now called a “Wisteria,” but many other designs, such as the laylights and the pier-cluster casements, have no such later appellations.

Wright included one of the “Tree of Life” windows in the 1907 Chicago Architectural Club exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. It is not known whether it, like the Dana windows in that show, was made as an exhibition piece, was an extra from the house, or was borrowed from the house. However, there are no known extras or exhibition pieces from the Martin complex.  Clearly, however, Wright thought it was worthy of a place in the exhibit as one of the outstanding pieces of his oeuvre to date.

Most of the windows were removed during the mid-20th Century.  After Darwin Martin’s death in 1935, the house was abandoned until 1954. The carriage house, conservatory, and pergola were demolished in 1962. Most of the windows disappeared in that period, and can now be found in a number of important museum collections around the world, including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Princeton University Art Museum, Milwaukee Art  Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Some of them remained with the house and are now in the house museum, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex.

Julie L. Sloan, Stained-Glass Consultant, North Adams, MA