Lot 320: Austrian-born architect Joseph Urban (1872-1933) i

JOSEPH AND GRETL URBAN/ZIEGFELD THEATER Three-panel room screen of painted canvas over plywood, decorated with lush flora. (Austrian-born architect Joseph Urban (1872-1933) emigrated to the United States in 1911 to become art director of the Boston Opera. Urban's extremely successful career in his adoptive country included all matters of design, from theater to movie sets, to interiors and buildings. His high-profile clients included William Randolf Hearst, for whom he served as artistic director for Cosmopolitan Pictures from 1920 to 1925, and Florenz Ziegfeld, for whom he designed the Follies starting in 1915, and eventually the Ziegfeld Theater (built 1927 and financed by Hearst. The canvas was originally part of a large mural in the Ziegfeld's Ladies' Lounge, executed by Urban's daughter Gretl, a frequent collaborator. The entire mural was originally in the collection of Randolph Carter, a fellow set designer at the Ziegfeld, and co-author of "Joseph Urban: Architecture, Theater, Opera, Film.") Some minor losses. Unmarked. Each panel: 8' x 24"