The other Wright sibling: Maginel Wright Enright Barney
The illustrative career of Frank Lloyd Wright's sister
Maginel Wright Enright Barney (born Margaret Ellen but then later changed to Maginel as a contraction of Maggie-Nell, 1880-1966, America) was an illustrator of 63 children’s books, most famously including books written by L. Frank Baum (who wrote The Wizard of Oz). She was the younger sister of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was 14 years her senior, and when Maginel was 12 years old the family moved to Chicago to be closer to Frank’s architectural work. There she attended Chicago Art Institute where her first job was illustrating fashion catalogues. In the 1920s-40s she also illustrated for numerous magazines Woman’s Home Companion, Ladies, Home Journal, Everybody’s, McClure’s, and Woman’s World. She is best known for illustrating children’s textbooks but also designed tapestries, landscapes, and high fashion shoes.
Her daughter Elizabeth Enright recalls her mother’s artistic process:
“… her drawing board tilted against the worktable before her. In her dark curly hair two or three pencils were stabbed like geisha ornaments, and a watercolor brush was often gripped between her teeth. Her whole attitude as she applied the brush—then leaned away from the picture and bent her head from side to side, narrowing her eyes at it, then leaned forward again—was the attitude of an artist at work: alone, concentrated, for the moment wholly self-sufficient…
I liked to see the picture growing on the board; I liked the little round porcelain dishes in which fat worms of color had been squeezed; crimson lake and cobalt blue and emerald green. I liked the lions on the Winsor & Newton paint tubes, and the tiny chime of the brush as it knocked against the rim of the glass when she dipped it in the water.”
What I like about her work are the puzzle like arrangements in each piece. There’s a forced flat perspective and low shading, taking from the art nouveau style and Japanese prints she would’ve been surrounded by (Frank Lloyd Wright had a particular passion for Japanese prints which he collected throughout his career).
Did you guys know Frank Lloyd Wright had a creative sister? I certainly didn’t (until I was researching the top image!). Below (and in the captions of some of the images) contain links to various books Maginel illustrated.
Illustrated books
Babes in birdland: a nature fairy tale by L. Frank Baum (under the pseudonym Laura Bancroft)
Garden of heart's desire; a fairy tale by Ida M. Huntington
The Online Books Page has a comprehensive list of her books available online.
Further Reading
The valley of the God-almighty Joneses (Maginel’s autobiography), 1965, Apple-Century New York.
Wow! I had no idea that Maginel had a famous brother, or that she was the mother of the author of my favorite middle-grade book, Gone-Away Lake. This is blowing my mind. Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow! She is one of my favorite illustrators without my knowing AT ALL who her brother was! My unpopular opinion is that his architecture isn't all that nice, but her illustrations are absolutely wonderful!
And her daughter is Elizabeth Enright! Another fave!