Marcel Breuer

"House in Pittsburgh, PA," Architectural Forum, March 1941, pp. 166
James Ford and Katherine Morrow Ford, Design of Modern Interiors, New York, 1942, pp. 26 and 116
Christopher Wilk, Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors, New York, 1981, p. 153, fig. 158

The Frank House in Pittsburgh represents the absolute of elegance in Modernism. At 12,000 square feet, it is believed to be the largest pre-war International Style residence in the world. Recent historians who have been allowed to tour this masterwork have extolled its importance as one of the great American modernist homes, and a touchstone moment in the careers of both Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

For Gropius, who had not received such a large commission since the Bauhaus, this was a unique opportunity to adapt the tenets of the International Style to the American vernacular landscape. For Breuer, the house served as a laboratory for the development of his biomorphic plywood furniture designs and an opportunity to experiment with the flourishes of American modernism, from the lucite legs of several dining, card and coffee tables to the calfskin upholsteries of many of the lounge chairs. What emerged is an elegant and beautiful home, designed for entertaining, but unified with the natural landscape. Two of the Fearsome Gods of the Bauhaus were given a monumental budget by a family who liked a grand party, and the Frank House is the wonderful result.

What has kept this house in its original condition is that it has remained in the family of the original owners. Until this year, only one chair (Lot--, loaned to the Whitney in 1988), from the collection of furniture designed by Breuer, has even left the house for a minute. It is the intent of the owner to preserve the Frank as a museum, and it is his hope that the awareness raised by the sale of the following two tables and two chairs will help achieve this goal, and they are acquired by serious private and institutional collectors.