Wharton Esherick

Today, building an autobiography.  The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. 

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     How much can a house tell us about the person who lived there? Houses of famous people often leave us disappointed, with only dusty objects in a lifeless space. But what if the house was designed and built by the owner, and if he was also a multifaceted artist who filled the house with his own creations? Then you can find much to illuminate both life and work as I did on a recent visit to the Wharton Esherick Museum, located in the country outside of Philadelphia. 

Exterior of Wharton Esherick studio. Courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum 

Esherick is now known for his organic furniture designs, but he began as a painter. Born in 1887, he studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1913, he and his new wife Letty Nofer bought a stone farmhouse where he set up his studio on the second floor. Letty helped support the family by teaching. In 1919 she led the family to spend a year in the utopian community of Fairhope, Alabama where she taught in the progressive school. It was there that Esherick finally discovered his affinity for wood by carving frames for his paintings and cutting woodblocks for prints.

Back in Pennsylvania, he explored his new medium in sculpture, finely-crafted furniture, and a myriad of other wood objects. 

Interior of Wharton Esherick studio. Courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

Interior of Wharton Esherick Studio. Courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

Dining Room Table, by Wharton Esherick. 1956. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Gift of Mrs. Efrem Kurtz. Object number 2000.282. Image courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

In 1926, he needed a larger space to make his sculptures and furniture and built a studio building on the wooded hillside above the farmhouse. This simple stone structure in an Arts and Crafts style evolved over time. After Esherick and Letty separated in 1938 he moved into the studio. He designed and built additions in 1940 and 1966 to provide more living spaces for himself and his son Peter. From the outside, each addition looks dramatically different from the original stone structure, but when you enter the building now, the interior dissolves into what appears to be a seamlessly expanding space of glorious chaos. In addition to the furniture, sculptures, paintings, and woodcuts he created, his touch can be found in the floors, ceilings, light fixtures, coat hooks, and cutting boards.  A dramatic spiral staircase of 1930 perfectly embodies his mastery of organic design. Cantilevered steps of varying shapes and sizes are attached to a twisted oak pillar that looks as if it could have grown from the earth beneath it. 

Interior of Wharton Esherick studio showing staircase. Courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

Esherick lived and worked in this building until his death in 1970. His family opened it as a museum two years later. 

Esherick’s work inspired generations of artists and designers.

When once approached about a biography, he refused, saying,” If people want to know who I am they can come and see my studio.” Although no space can contain the entirety of a human being, this one is filled with the evidence and vitality of Esherick’s very creative mind and life.

I’m Margaret Culbertson at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Bayou Bend Collection, where we too are interested in the way inventive minds work.

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Bibliography:

The Wharton Esherick Museum website provides useful background information and images of the studio building and its contents.

https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/explore/collection-highlights/

https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/explore/collection-highlights/studio/

The following books provide more in-depth information.

Bascom, Mansfield. Wharton Esherick: The Journey of a Creative Mind. New York: Abrams, 2010.

The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick. NY: Rizzoli/Electa, 2024.

Eisenhauer, Paul, editor. Wharton Esherick Studio and Collection. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Lt., 2010.

Eisenhauer, Paul and Lynne Farrington, editors. Wharton Esherick and the Birth of the American Modern. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., in cooperation with Penn Libraries, 2010.

This Episode first aired February 18, 2026.