A Margaret Bruton terrazzo cream painted and lacquer low table
probably supplied by Frances Elkins
mid-20th century
Signed with the artists initials MB.
height 13in (33cm); width 31in (104cm); depth 31in (104cm)
Footnote:
Margaret Bruton (1894-1983) was born to Daniel Bruton (1839–1928) of Dublin, Ireland, and Helen Bell (1866–1956) of Belfast, Ireland in Brooklyn New York. She was the eldest of three sisters, including Anne Esther Bruton Gilman (1896–1992) and Helen Bruton (1898–1985). Helen Bruton, Sr. valued creativity and education and Margaret and her sisters were encouraged to pursue their artistic talents from a young age. This nurturing environment laid the foundation for what would become Margaret Bruton’s prolific career in painting, muralism, printmaking, and mosaics.

The family eventually moved from New York to Alameda, California. Margaret began her artistic studies at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute in 1913, where she worked under Frank Van Sloun. That same year she won a scholarship during a competition organized by the Art Students League of New York. Back in New York, she refined her skills under the guidance of artists Robert Henri and Frank Vincent Dumond from 1914 to 1918.

In the early 1920s, Margaret Bruton moved to Monterey, California, attracted by the scenic beauty and the opportunity to study with artist Armin Hansen. The Bruton family eventually settled there, building a house and studio where they spent many summers. Margaret was associated with the Monterey Group of painters who were meeting at the Robert Louis Stevenson House.

Margaret gained recognition through various shows, such as a group exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum in 1923 where she won a $100 prize. She also received accolades at the Santa Cruz Art League in 1925. She and her sisters undertook international trips, visiting England, France, Italy. Around 1929, Margaret embarked on an artistic journey to New Mexico (Taos and Santa Fe). She spent a year studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Her studies and travels honed her artistic style, blending realism, modernism and avant garde influences to create a diverse, vibrant body of work.

The Bruton sisters received commission for important public art projects funded by the WPA, culminating in their masterful execution of a bas relief mural The Peacemakers for the entrance to Treasure Island’s Court of the Pacific at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco. They were paid $20,000 for the mural (nearly $450,000 today), an astonishing sum to earn in the final year of the Depression.

About 1940, Margaret Bruton pivoted away from painting and began creating colorful, mortar-and-stone terazzo mosaic tabletops including some for clients of influential interior decorator Frances Adler Elkins who had her design studio Casa Blanca in the Robert Louis Stevenson House. Margaret would design the tabletops and the decorator or homeowner would choose the bases. An identical table is illustrated S. Powell, Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer, New York, 2023, pp. 232-233.

Together, Bruton sisters earned commissions for cruise ships, churches, cemeteries and universities as well as the Fleishacker Zoo and hotels including the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for which Margaret created 47 terazzo tabletops for a lounge, commissioned by Frances Elkins. Three cafe tables created by Margaret Bruton matching those created for the Royal Hawaiian Hotel lounge can be found at the Filoli Garden House overlooking the Sunken Garden in Woodside, California. Margaret also created the Monterey Harbor monument plaque at entrance of Fisherman’s Wharf.

In 1953 Margaret Bruton was hired to create a mural for the lobby for the Standard Federal Savings and Loan Building in Los Angeles. Her abstract imagery executed in hues of green and gold evoked currency and finance. During a subsequent renovation, the mural was removed and lost. The current owner of the building hired a firm to recreate the work based on extant images and the replica was installed in place of the original in 2021.

General marks, nicks, scratches, rubbing and wear commensurate with age and use. Crazing and some spotting to lacquer on frame.