Floral Arrangement in Pink and Silver: Framed Three-Paneled Screen

Like his friend Charles Prendergast, Max Kuehne became an accomplished craftsman who designed and executed picture frames, framed panels, and furniture, often drawing upon Persian miniatures and Japanese screens as his sources of inspiration. The present example demonstrates the artist's fascination with Japanese painting of the early Edo period (mid-seventeenth century). With Prendergast, Kuehne shared aims and techniques in his wood working, applying gesso over wood that he incised, colored with paint and leaves of precious metals, and finished with either shellac or varnish. He sold his first piece of furniture in 1917 and continued to make furniture through the 1950s for private collectors, decorators, and retailers. Demonstrating the popularity of his decorative art designs, a one-man show of Kuehne's cabinet pieces and folding screens was held in 1932 at the Arden Gallery in New York.