Wilfred Buckland

Wilfred Buckland (April 18, 1866 – July 18, 1946) was an American stage designer and art director whose career spanned Broadway, the theater world of David Belasco, and the early Hollywood film industry. Born in New York City to Reverend Rabbi Joseph Wales and Emily (Wilson) Buckland, he began his professional life as an artist, taking on work that included interior decoration and paintings for New York's Trinity Church during its bicentenary celebration in 1897.

Buckland's Broadway career ran from 1897 to 1910 and encompassed appearances in and design work for productions including The Green Cockatoo, Hannele, Pillars of Society, and The Little Minister. His stage credits extended further to include scenic design for The Rose of the Rancho (1907), A Grand Army Man (1907), The Music Master (1904), and The Darling of the Gods (1903), as well as design work on Du Barry (1901). He served as both stage director and scenic designer for Adrea in 1905. These credits were largely developed through his long association with producer David Belasco, whom he served in various capacities over roughly a decade. By 1907, The New York Times identified Buckland as Belasco's general stage manager, and by 1910 he was described in print as Belasco's art director, responsible for scenery, costumes, and other artistic elements. Among his contributions to Belasco's physical theaters, Buckland designed the color scheme, draperies, and stage curtain for the Stuyvesant Theatre — now the Belasco Theatre — when it opened in 1907. One contemporary reviewer, writing about the sets Buckland designed for the stage production of Omar, the Tentmaker, described them as pictorially finer than anything previously seen on the stage.

In 1914, Cecil B. DeMille brought the forty-seven-year-old Buckland to Hollywood to work on the film The Squaw Man. According to some accounts, producer Jesse L. Lasky had purchased the rights to Belasco's plays, and Buckland's services as art director were included as part of that arrangement. Buckland went on to work with DeMille on the majority of his projects through 1920 and also contributed to most of the films produced by Jesse Lasky's Famous Players–Lasky company. During this period he was credited with introducing artificial lighting to motion pictures through the use of klieg lights, a technique that came to be known as Lasky lighting. Lasky later wrote that Buckland, as the first bona fide art director in the industry and the first to construct architectural settings for films, had significantly expanded the possibilities of the medium by moving beyond the scenic limitations of the stage.

Buckland described his working method to a reporter in 1920, explaining that he began each project by reviewing the script to understand the characters and their environments, then prepared sketches that were handed off to architectural draftsmen. Once a structure was built, he directed the interior painting and decoration as well. He expressed a desire to see film sets move away from literal reproduction and toward atmosphere, drawing on the principle, which he attributed to Whistler, that the great secret of art lies in knowing what to leave out. As early as 1917, Buckland had written to DeMille expressing frustration that his artistic vision was being constrained, stating that he had come to Hollywood seeking a more pictorial approach adapted from the rules governing painting. He also complained publicly that overproduction undermined the art director's role, noting that he had supervised fifty-six pictures in a single year and that studio demands forced art directors to function as architects or scenic artists rather than as interpreters of dramatic narrative. His collaboration with DeMille grew increasingly contentious, and the two ended their working relationship in 1920. Despite this, DeMille spoke at a testimonial dinner for Buckland in 1941, calling him a great artist and a great man and expressing that he had been glad to sit at his feet.

Following his departure from DeMille, Buckland began working with director Alan Dwan. In 1922 he designed the settings for the feature Omar the Tentmaker, which a reviewer described as the work of the first man in his field and still its finest craftsman. That same year, while working with Dwan, Buckland created the castle set for Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood, one of the largest sets constructed at that time. The Los Angeles Times described the castle as a marvel and the most astonishing feature of the film, noting its waves of light and shadow, its fairytale heights of tower and turret, and its legendary magnificence. Buckland continued working in film through 1927, collaborating with both DeMille and Dwan across that span.

Beyond his film work, Buckland was known as a collector of ancient firearms. In 1916, a newspaper identified him as the greatest collector and authority on ancient firearms in the country, with a collection said to be the most complete in the world, surpassing even that of the British Museum. In 1924, he was named one of ten individuals who had contributed most to the advancement of the motion picture industry since its inception. A 1980 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London argued that everything recognizable as Hollywood traces back to Buckland's influence. He was among the first inductees into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame.