Theodore Roszak's Survey of Art portfolio indicates that he also may have used materials such as August Blunck's Lessons on Form. Blunck (1858-1946), an architect, created a series of large plates containing outline drawings on a grid that would allow students to practice freehand drawing. A contemporary review of the book in The International Studio praised the publication for showing “the pupil what ornament means, how he can employ it, and where he may find models and examples.” (Book Reviews. The International Studio. Vol. 26, No. 104 (Oct. 1905) page 247).
The example in Roszak's portfolio is strikingly similar to Blunck's exercise. Additional examples of student assignments based on Blunck's ideas can be found in the published portfolio Research Design in Nature, created by the students in John Gilbert Wilkins's class at the School of the Art Institute in 1931. In 1922, Wilkins initiated a program in which students enrolled in his research class would visit the Field Museum in Chicago and use exhibitions there as subjects for their artwork.
The designs that the students created using flowers could have been used to decorate porcelain, techniques for which are explained in The Book of the China Painter, or to create floral textile patterns, such as the net pattern described in Abstract Design.
The 1937 Annual Report of the Director to the Board of Trustees of the Field Museum mentioned Wilkins's class, stating, “Many graduates have become successful designers, illustrators, teachers, and creative painters and sculptors” (page 186). This was certainly true of Roszak, whose education at the School of the Art Institute prepared him for study in Europe, where he studied Constructivism and Surrealism; he returned to the United States in the early 1930s and launched a successful career as a sculptor and teacher in New York.
- Roszak, Theodore. “Invented Flowers.“ Survey of Art. Art Institute of Chicago Archives.
- Blunck, August. Lessons on Form. Cleveland: J. H. Jansen, 1918.
- Wilkins, John Gregory. Research Design in Nature. Chicago: J. G. Wilkins, 1926.
- Vance-Phillips, L. The Book of the China Painter: A Complete Guide for the Keramic Decorator. New York: Montague Marks, 1896.
- Fenn, Amor. Abstract Design: A Practical Manual in the Making of Patterns. London: B. T. Batsford, 1930.