:::Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts::: Artists

George W. Maher ( 1864-1926 )

	Poppy Leaded Glass Windows - 1905-06 Leaded glass and wood 108 x 79 x 1 ¾ inches Print Click image for detailed view Contact the Gallery for more information

Provenance:

Winton House, Wausau, Wisconsin

Robert and Kathy Coleman, Oak Park, Illinois, mid-1970s to the present

This arched glass window and its two accompanying rectangular panels were designed for and originally installed in the Charles and Helen Winton House in Wausau, Wisconsin. Located at 522 Grant Street, the house was the first of two homes that Maher created for the couple, who were wealthy heirs to the Winton lumber company. Although the structure itself was demolished in 1976 by the First Universalist Church to make way for a parking lot, a number of its unique stained glass windows and lighting fixtures were salvaged prior to its destruction.

One of the leading practitioners of the Prairie School style of architecture, George W. Maher began his career as an apprentice in the firms of Louis Sullivan and J.L. Silsbee, where he worked alongside other budding talents like Frank Lloyd Wright and George Grant Elmslie. From Sullivan, Maher absorbed a penchant for basing his architectural ornamentation on nature and structural form, while shying away from historical styles. Silsbee instilled in the young architect a thorough knowledge of Shingle Style architecture, an aesthetic that was characterized by wide porches, shingled surfaces and asymmetrical forms. After establishing his own practice in 1888, Maher continued to work in the Shingle Style, designing buildings with strong horizontal lines and short, massive vertical supports. Around 1905, this heavy monumentality lightened, giving way to the architect’s mature Prairie School aesthetic.

Maher’s most original contribution to the Prairie School was the concept he termed the “motif-rhythm theory,” which he first conceived in 1897. Inspired by German and Austrian architects, Josef Hoffmann and the Viennese Secessionists in particular, the idea behind the theory was to create a cohesive living space through the exclusive use of a single theme. In order to unify the exterior structure and the interior decorative elements, Maher repeated modifications of the chosen motif in lighting fixtures, furniture, and woodwork, as well as elaborate pieces of art glass. Fully aware of the potential to overly saturate a space with a single pattern, the architect was careful to synthesize a simplified yet harmonious interior that not only conveyed a strong personal impression of himself but also of his client. In contrast to the more angular, rectilinear patterns of his Prairie School contemporaries, Maher’s designs generally merged floral and geometric components to achieve a softer, organic quality.

For the Winton house, Maher employed a motif rhythm of poppies, a theme that reached its artistic culmination in this impressive group of art glass windows. Located on the left side of the home, overlooking the landing of the main interior staircase, the arched panel was situated above a set of three vertical windows, which as a group spanned nearly ten feet in height. In the design, a meandering pattern of flowers, vines and leaves weaves around the exterior edge, softening the underlying geometric organization. The grid of the rectangular panels provides a lattice-like structure for the sinuous vines to climb, while the parallel curves of the arched pane, punctuated by vertical separators, suggest a segmented stone arch. The middle panel, which now resides in the permanent collection of the Chicago Historical Society, displays the most rectilinear design of the four. Separated into vertical rectangles of various sizes, the geometry is interrupted only by three stylized poppies, one of which continues upward and is repeated in the arched pane.

Crafting a pattern that exudes a sense of serenity and balance, Maher accomplished subtle nuances in color and dimension by incorporating different types of textured glass. Employing a clear crackle glass to impart a pale greenish hue to the leaf formations, he selected slightly opaque sheets of milk wispy white to give the flowers a pink appearance. The soft-hammered and granite textured panes that comprise several of the curves in the arched window gently break up the continuity of the clear glass, adding another layer of complexity to the rhythmic harmonies of the design. Like the blooming flower it depicts, the pattern opens up, becoming progressively fuller from bottom to top: the closed buds in the lower corners and along the edges lead the viewer’s eye upward to the pinnacle where two fully blossomed poppies preside. Line, color and texture meld seamlessly together, creating a sophisticated lyricism that endows the windows with an understated elegance.