A GROUP OF ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

SCULPTURE, DRAWINGS, SILHOUETTES AND DECORATIVE ARTS BY WILLIAM HUNT DIEDERICH FROM THE COLLECTION OF DIANA DIEDERICH BLAKE WILLIAM HUNT DIEDERICH (1884-1953) Hungarian born Hunt Diederich was the son of a Prussian cavalry colonel and a Bostonian aristocrat painter. Though Hunt was barely three years old when his father died in a hunting accident, he admittedly inherited his elder's profound love of animals. It was his mother's world-renowned Hunt family that kindled his passion for the arts, and as early as the age of five his dual fascination with animals and art was manifested in a series of silhouette paper cutouts of animals. After receiving an education in Switzerland, Hunt emigrated to America in 1900 where he continued his studies at the Boston Art School and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Preferring to learn through experience rather than in the classroom, Hunt took time off first to live a cowboy life at a cousin's ranch in Wyoming, and later to travel to Africa and Europe. Eventually, he settled for a short while in Paris where he embarked upon his artistic career exhibiting at the Spring Salon in 1910. A successful one man show followed in Rome two years later, and by 1913 he received critical acclaim for his bronze figural group entitled 'Greyhounds' which was featured at the Salon D'Automne. By 1917 Diederich was back in New York and was formally introduced to an American audience when an exhibition of his metal work was featured at a Manhattan decorator's studio. He believed that art should be useful, and the show consisted of utilitarian objects including firescreens, brackets, trivets, weathervanes and bridge lamps. The public took notice, and though the works were commonplace items, they were elegant and dynamic. A master of various media, including bronze (lots 6,7,8,9,10,), wrought-iron (lots 5,13), metalwork (lot 4), block prints (lot 1), pencil and crayon drawings (lot 12,17), and ceramics (lot 15), Diederich's career flourished throughout the 1920s. He took particular pleasure in portraying hounds, stags, horses and riders, fighting cocks, bulls and toreadors. Best known for his metalwork, his distinctive style is characterized by its graceful silhouettes, elongated outlines, subtle details, spontaneity and raw energy. His conception of sculpture is rhythmically kinetic and his works are endowed with vitality and personality. Prominent galleries and museums such as the Whitney Studio Club (the forerunner of the Whitney Museum of American Art), The Joseph Brummer Gallery, The Kingore Galleries, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the San Francisco M.H. de Young Memorial Museum hosted exhibitions of Diederich's work in the 1920s and '30s during the height of the artist's popularity. In 1928 Diederich fell from scaffolding and seriously injured his right ankle. Chronic pain from an infirmed leg resulted in diminished artistic production, and his career sadly was reduced to coarse reinterpretations of his earlier enchanting creations. The following lots (1-18) are being offered on behalf Ms. Diana Diederich Blake, daughter of William Hunt Diederich.

Details

A GROUP OF ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
Comprising a portfolio of forty-five period black and white photographs documenting wrought-iron firescreens, chandeliers, doors, weathervanes, screens, window/door grates, sculpture, torcheres and andirons by William Hunt Diederich, each with later inventory paper label with title and date; a period copy of the Diederich Exhibition catalogue, held at the Kingore Galleries; and a selection of woodblock prints by William Hunt Diederich, the majority signed in pencil

Provenance

George Bardosy Estate

Lot Essay

During the 1920s, Diederich turned to Manhattan blacksmith and fellow Hungarian George Bardosy, of The American Art Metal & Iron Co., to realize his designs for such utiliarian objects such as firescreen and torcheres. His printed work, using wood block and linoleum-cut printing techniques appeared on the January 1919 cover of 'Ploughshares', a local art journal from Woodstock, New York, and in the catalogue for the first U.S. exhibition of his work.

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