Modern
1890-present

"Modern" is an all-embracing category for the various frame styles that succeeded the Late Victorian era. They include the Art Nouveau style of the 1890's, which is characterized by its reliance on curvilinnear forms taken from nature, and the Art Deco style of the 1930's, which had sleeker contours and ties to the International Style. The term "Modernist" denotes American painting frames from the 1940's and 1950's. The House of Heydenryk, a leader in creating bold and unique moldings in the Modernist era, is still alive and well today, one of the leading dealers in antique and reproduction frames.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was dominant in many areas of American design at the beginning of the 20th Century. Artists exalted the beauty of natural materials and handcraftsmanship. Building on the dictates laid down by Charles Eastlake decades earlier, frame artisans eschewed compo ornament and returned to the 18th Century practice of carving picture frames by hand.

Arts and Crafts frames were the choice of the early American Impressionists, like Childe Hassam, and a number of frame-making studios were formed to meet this demand. To further assert the role of the craftsman, studios carved their marks on the backs of the frames--Thulin, Harer, Carrig-Rohane--names that command high prices in today's market. The Foster Brothers Company worked out of Boston; their frames are renowned for expert carving and fine gilding.

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Pause curser on image for inventory number. All frames subject to prior sale.

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