The house of Peggy and Jan de Graaff

Like most of the businessmen of the United States, Jan de Graaff also entered the elite of owners of modernist houses designed by great architects and, of course, in art collecting. In 1940 he commissioned the design of his new home to Richard Neutra, who made use of the collaboration of James Van Evera Bailey as supervising architect. (18, 19) Neutra was a Viennese architect, residing in Los Angeles, who was instrumental in bringing the modern movement to the United States. He is famous for his internationally styled Los Angeles homes, such as the Lovell Health House (1929), which is now an icon of Californian modernism. After Bailey returned to Portland (1937) from Southern California, Neutra hired him as the local supervising architect for the Jan de Graaff home in Dunthorpe, an affluent Portland suburb (at 1900 Southwest Palatine Hill Road, now 1901 South Comus). (20, 21, 22) Built in the same year (1940), the house was immediately reviewed by Russel Hitchcock in California Arts and Architecture magazine in the December 1940 issue, in an article accompanied by seven photographs. In addition to two advertisements of companies operating in the construction sector, where two more photos are reproduced (Annex 2). Another review of the house appears in the House & Garden magazine in February 1942, together with the publication of the drawings of the plants and three other photos (Annex 3). A third and rich review is published in the Architectural Record magazine of May 1943, in which, in addition to the cover, four pages are dedicated with a considerable sequence of photos (9), accompanied by drawings of the plants which, in this case, also present the interior furnishings (Annex 4). None of the published images feature Mondrian’s work.

18 - Richard Neutra 19 - James Van Evera Bailey

20 - Original Project by Richard Neutra

21

Bailey’s supervision was significant for the success of the work. Neutra’s project envisaged that the facades, in perfect modernist style, were covered with stucco. Bailey made a change by adopting a cedar slat cladding that would hold up better in Portland’s humid climate and give it a more local flavor. Bailey earned national recognition as an “architect of the Northwest” and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, the architectural critic and historian who co-wrote The International Style with Philip Johnson, wrote: “The maturation of remarkable skills Bailey’s should make him a much better known and appreciated modern American architect than he has been until now. “ Bailey’s decisive contribution increased Jan de Graaff’s confidence in him, to the point that subsequent projects were commissioned directly to him. In late 1939 or early 1940, Jan’s parents left Holland for Oregon to visit their son. The Nazi occupation of the Netherlands prevented their return, so they decided to stop in Partland for good. In 1940, together with their son Jan, the couple William H. and Francisca de Graaff commissioned Van Evera Bailey to design the new house in the Eastmoreland neighborhood.