Large oil-on-canvas mural panel completely filled with a rich, fanciful, brightly colored, detailed scene of a bower or garden with a blooming tree and colorful birds surrounded by eleven human figures in theatrical poses and boldly patterned costumes that blend into a joyful background illustrated with a fantasy of berries, flowers and leaves, a leaping gazelle and the outline of a village along a semicircular line. Four of the human figures wear headdresses, including cone-shaped hennins with veil and a starched cornette wimple that remind of medieval characters. A figure in the upper right corner holds an arrow and bow in a cupid-like manner; a couple captured in a curtsy holds hands, another couple is in a lateral embrace, one figure holds up a net as if hunting a bird, the woman wearing a wimple sleeps, and three seated figures with harlequinesque costumes either observe or hold their hands close to their face in an expression of surprise. The lively and colorful scene is depicted in styilized and simplified manner and feels flat with no perspective. The background is subdivided in boldly colored, curved, puzzle-like areas.

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See more objects with the tag multicolored, fantasy, theater, mural, harlequin, Joseph Urban.

Object Timeline

	We acquired this object.
0	Work on this object ended.
1927	Work on this object began.
2017	We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Object ID #907131605

This is a Two Mural Panels for the Ziegfeld Theatre. It was painted by Lillian Gaertner.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago as part of The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

It is dated 1927. Its medium is oil on canvas.

With harlequin figures in floral bowers, these mural panels epitomize the interest in color and fantasy that Joseph Urban brought to his opera, theater, and film designs. The Joy of Life was used as a mural on the Ziegfeld Theatre’s proscenium wall.

It is credited The Collection of Richard H. Driehaus, Chicago.

A drawing of an ornate, red and gold Mayan-inspired stepped design for a bracket lighting fixture. The shape takes the form of an upward pointing arrow, with a triangle shape at the top made up of thirteen cream oblong shapes, elaborately decorated in gold geometric patterns, set against a striped ruby red panel. In the center of the triangle, where the stem extends downwards, is a gold rectangular shape with a face at the top wearing three gold feathers that spill out above the bottom line. Two of the oblong shapes, one in from each edge of the bottom line of the triangle, are further decorated with long gold scrolls that hang downwards. In the center of the triangle a long stem flows downwards, formed from three cream oblong shapes decorated in gold, and set against thicker ruby red paneling. The downward stem is crossed with two horizontal lines, one at the center and one at the bottom, formed from two and four cream oblong shapes decorated with gold. At the very bottom of the stem is a gold heraldic head, with ruby red feathered details. The fixture is set aginst a cream brick wall. A side view sketch and annotations in graphite can be found on the left and at the bottom.

Object ID #890290255
gouache on paper.
Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library.
43.2016.3

Drawing of a roof garden. The image is angled up toward the ceiling, so that the well-dressed patrons at the bottom of the image are mostly seen from the shoulders up. The men wear tuxedos and the women ball gowns. The walls have large, vertically-rectangular windows that extend from floor to ceiling. A floral pattern with dark green background and curvacious pink, orange, and red plants extends from the top of the walls all the way onto the ceiling. Two rows of windows extend the length of the ceiling, from one side of the room to another. A row of the aforementioned floral pattern extends across the middle of the ceiling, separating the two rows of windows.

Drawing, Design for Roof Garden, Hotel Gibson, Cincinnati, OH
pen and black ink, brush and watercolor, white gouache, gold paint, graphite....
Museum purchase through gift of Carola Walton in memory of her mother Dorothy....
1990-126-1

Its dimensions are

H x W (overall): 518.5 × 729 × 1.6 cm (17 ft. 1/8 in. × 23 ft. 11 in. × 5/8 in.) H x W (middle left panel): 518.3 × 182.9 × 1.6 cm, 58.1 kg (17 ft. 1/16 in. × 6 ft. × 5/8 in., 128 lb.) H x W x D (middle right panel): 518.5 × 180.3 × 1.6 cm (17 ft. 1/8 in. × 5 ft. 11 in. × 5/8 in.) Weight: 128 pounds

We have 1 media file that features Object ID #907131605.

"East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," Duke Ellington (1927)

“East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” was recorded three times within 1927 by Duke Ellington. The third version of the piece seemed to match trumpeter Bubber Miley’s description of the work: “This is...

https://archive.org/details/DukeEllingtonAndHisOrchestra1924-1927/18+East+St.+Louis+Toodle-Oo+-+Version+1.mp3

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2oahC6/
Accession Number 49.2016.1
Object ID 907131605