Lot #2488: ALFONSO IANELLI - Study for Sculpture #17 - Original pen and pencil drawing

   

Artist: Alfonso Ianelli (Italian-American, 1888-1965).
Title: "Study for Sculpture #17".
Medium: Original pen and pencil drawing.
Date: Composed c1930s.
Dimensions: Overall size: 8 7/16 x 7 5/16 in. (214 x 186 mm). Image size: 5 1/2 x 1 3/8 in. (140 x 35 mm).
Lot Note(s): Artist signature stamp, verso. Cream wove paper. Fari to good condition. Provenance: Estate of a collector, Chicago. Comment(s): Ianelli arrived in America at the age of ten, later studying sculpture under Gutzon Borglum (famous for Mount Rushmore). From 1910 to 1915 he designed posters for the vaudeville acts appearing at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Frank Lloyd Wright invited Iannelli to work with him on his Midway Gardens project in 1914. He created several of the Midway's "Sprite" sculptures for Wright, but Wright took all the credit for them, and the two would never collaborate again. After Midway Gardens, Iannelli collaborated with noted Chicago area Prairie School design architects Purcell and Elmslie, and went on to a distinguished career as a sculptor, designer, and architect. [26501-1-90]