Lot 428: GEORGE GRANT ELMSLIE

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDGAR TAFEL, F. A. I. A., FORMER APPRENTICE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

ELEVATOR DOOR MEDALLION FROM THE CARSON, PIRIE, SCOTT & COMPANY DEPARTMENT STORE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

measurements note
22 in. (55.9 cm) diameter

ca. 1899

cast iron

executed by Winslow Brothers Company, Chicago

Edgar Tafel, Apprentice to Genius: Years with Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 1979, p. 33

LITERATURE

Robert Judson Clark, ed., The Arts and Crafts Movement in America 1876-1916, Princeton, 1972, p. 61
Sarah C. Mollman, ed., Louis Sullivan in The Art Institute of Chicago: The Illustrated Catalogue of Collections, New York, 1989, p. 175

NOTE

This iron medallion was designed for the elevator doors of the Schlesinger and Mayer department store (known by the name of its present owner Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company), and was cast in two parts to accommodate for the door partition.

Rediscovering Elmslie

The broad offering of works presented in the following lots by George Grant Elmslie provides a unique opportunity to study his designs in a variety of media throughout his illustrious career. Collaborating with many distinguished designers and architects, Elmslie's work consistently reflected his affinity for organic ornament drawn directly from nature. His juxtaposition of geometric elements and naturalistic motifs exemplifies his distinct expression of the Prairie School aesthetic.

Emigrating from Scotland to Chicago in 1884, Elmslie began his apprenticeship in the office of William LeBaron Jenney. In 1887 he joined Frank Lloyd Wright and George Washington Maher in the office of Joseph Lyman Silsbee, before following Wright to work with Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan in 1889. Elmslie and Sullivan went on to work together for two decades. Sullivan was a crucial figure in the development of Elmslie's style. Elmslie recalled that, "in proceeding, Sullivan established by simple axial lines and curves the basic nature and structure of his ornamental themes, and then orchestrated them much as does a musician in developing his basic musical themes." This comparison to music is particularly appropriate, considering the rhythmic quality of the motifs Sullivan inspired. As Sullivan's chief draftsman and ornamental designer, Elmslie played a vital role in some of Sullivan's most important commissions.

Elmslie was responsible for designing most of the exterior and interior ornament in the Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company department store designed by Sullivan in Chicago in 1899. The elevator door medallion offered in lot 428, displaying pierced interlacing devices derivative of Celtic designs, epitomizes Elmslie's fluid architectural ornament for this landmark building. Its intricate symmetrical repetition overcomes the inherent rigidity of the cast iron medium. The circular composition guides the viewer's eye effortlessly over the circuitous stems that radiate from the center.

The culmination of Elmslie and Sullivan's twenty-year partnership was marked by their completion of the Harold C. Bradley House in Madison, Wisconsin. Commissioned in 1909, this project is the last surviving example of Sullivan's residential designs. Sullivan's dramatic architectural plan is complemented by Elmslie's designs for leaded glass, furniture, and lighting. Lot 429 is one of eight high-back chairs designed by Elmslie for the dining room of the Bradley House. Its continuous, reticulated back draws from Elmslie's vocabulary of naturalistic motifs. Elmslie consistently incorporated organic ornament in his designs executed in various media, as exemplified by the impressive rug from the Babson House in lot 431, and the terracotta capitals and cornice panel offered in lots 432 and 433.

In 1909, Elmslie was presented with the opportunity to take over Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio, but declined in favor of joining the firm of William Gray Purcell and George Feick, Jr., in Minneapolis. In 1913 George Feick, Jr. left the firm, and Purcell and Elmslie continued their partnership for nine more years. As the most prolific of the Prairie School architects, they designed numerous residences, public buildings, offices, factories, and stores across the Midwest. They also designed numerous banks in Minnesota, which represented a rejection of the unimaginative neoclassical and neo-Georgian style banks which populated the midwestern architectural landscape. Their innovative vision helped define a new American style, characterized by box-like structures, steel frames, brick façades, arched entries, and stylized terracotta ornament. Lot 434, a pair of wickets from the First State Bank in LeRoy, Minnesota, exemplifies Purcell and Elmslie's designs for architectural metalwork for these bank commissions.

Reflecting on his aesthetic philosophy, Elmslie professed, "It is high-spirited enjoyment and serene pleasure to work on this basis."

--Katherine Brooke Kluger