Art Adorns the Paths of Life
Opened Jan. 2024, Closed Dec. 2025 — Ground Floor, East Wing Special Exhibits Room
From January 2024 to December 2025, the Michigan State Capitol displayed an art exhibit titled Art Adorns the Paths of Life. Inspired by the 1885-1890 decoration of our Capitol’s interior, the exhibit marked the first attempt to create a catalogue of works attributed to Detroit’s William Wright Company, the Capitol’s original interior decoration firm. It was illustrated with works of art by Christian and Oscar Weidemann, a father/son artisan team long employed by Wright. Christian led the Capitol decoration project as lead designer and foreman. While it served as a temporary physical exhibit at the Capitol, the exhibit lives on right here!
Painting the Capitol
Today Michigan’s Capitol is famous for its elaborate Victorian style artwork. Yet when the building opened in 1879, few of the interior surfaces were finished. Finally, after six years of delay, the process of decorating the Capitol’s walls, ceilings, and columns began in 1885. Follow the links below to explore the timeline of the project to paint the Capitol and learn about the various art techniques used to adorn its walls and ceilings.
The William Wright Company
The William Wright Company was a full interior decoration firm that provided clients a broad range of items, including custom woodwork, carpets, draperies, mirrors, furniture, and lighting fixtures.
For many decades the William Wright Company’s name was synonymous with Detroit luxury. Founded in the 1857 by English immigrant decorative painter William Wright, the firm endured until almost the end of the Great Depression in 1939.
Sadly, Wright company records are not known to have survived. In order to understand the breadth and scope of the firm’s work, Capitol historians spent months combing through American and Canadian publications in hopes of identifying “new” Wright commissions. This portion of the Art Adorns the Paths of Life project features their discoveries, which together comprise the first modern Wright Company catalogue raisonné.
The Weidemann Collection
The art showcased in the Capitol’s Art Adorns the Paths of Life exhibiton is part of the Weidemann Collection, donated to the Capitol from 2018-2023. The collection is comprised of pieces by Christian and Oscar Weidemann, a father/son team of Wright employees. Documents tell us that Christian Weidemann served as the foreman and head designer of the Capitol painting project for the William Wright Company from 1885-1890. He oversaw the onsite crew, chose the colors, designed the motifs, and made sure that the art that adorns our Capitol was well done and satisfied those in charge.
The art collection contains over 200 paintings, decorative designs, charcoal drawings, stencils, and portraits. Together, they provide a window into the creation of the decorative art that filled high-end structures in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Michigan and beyond. The Weidemann’s creations were, truly, the art that once adorned the paths, homes, churches, and businesses where we congregate, work, and live.
