Invisible lines: patterns of alignments in the renderings of Frank Lloyd Wright's Wasmuth Portfolio

Abstract

This article analyses Frank Lloyd Wright's composition techniques in the renderings of his Wasmuth Portfolio by diagramming perspective drawings of the K. C. De Rhodes and Victor Metzger houses. Previous studies of Wright's drawings have focused primarily on his graphic devices, whereas this article demonstrates how he employed patterns of alignments systematically to arrange key elements in the picture into geometric relationships. Additionally, in comparing the pattern system used in Wasmuth renderings with that in Japanese woodblock prints, this article provides new insights on Wright's artistic debt to the latter, and Utagawa Hiroshige's work in particular. In revealing the underlying patterns of Wright's renderings, this study contributes to a refreshed and more nuanced perspective of Wright's work and advances our understanding of the role of patterns in architectural representations.