Details
WROUGHT-IRON ELEVATOR GRILLE
DESIGNED BY LOUIS H. SULLIVAN FOR THE CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING, CIRCA 1893
Comprising an overall design of forty-two panels of concentric ovals featuring X shapes with spherical devices (87.10.01)--73¾in. (187.3cm.) high, 58½in. (148.6cm.) wide
DESIGNED BY LOUIS H. SULLIVAN FOR THE CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING, CIRCA 1893
Comprising an overall design of forty-two panels of concentric ovals featuring X shapes with spherical devices (87.10.01)--73¾in. (187.3cm.) high, 58½in. (148.6cm.) wide
Provenance
Christie's, New York, June 20, 1987
Literature
Robert Twombly, Louis Sullivan His Life and Work, The University of Chicago Press, 1986, p. 317 writes of the Stock Exchange commission: 'Note should be made of Sullivan's ornament...some of his
most elegant ever. Conceived in the spring of 1984, the elevator
grilles on the third to thirteenth floors featured oval shapes he
later associated with 'seed germs', the embryo of the life-force
discussed in 'Inspiration', his prose-poem of 1886. Fixed to
vertical axes and pinned together horizontally, each 'germ' had
four stamens forming a diagonal cross. ...The elevators,
stairwells, and the lobby in the Stock Exchange showed
Sullivan's ornament at its mature best, and though some was
saved when the building was razed, most of it was lost.'
The design for the grilles illustrated in the same work p. 317 as well as Brian A. Spencer, The Prairie School Tradition, Whitney Library of Design, N.Y., 1979, p. 32; and Chapman, Jackson and Huntley, Louis H. Sullivan Architectural Ornament Collection Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Office of Cultural Arts and University Museums, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois, 1981, fig. 37; and John Vinci, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Stock Exchange Trading Room, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1977, pp. 22, 23 showing photographs of the grilles, in situ and p. 20 for a discussion of the design.
The Chicago Stock Exchange was one of the last major commissions by Adler & Sullivan prior to the dissolution of the firm. Two architects who would go on to establish reputations of their own were in their employ at the time of this commission: Frank Lloyd Wright and George Grant Elmslie. There is a remarkable similarity between the present example and gates which Wright would later design for the Nathan Moore and the Francis Apartments, Chicago in 1895. The latter rely heavily on the interaction of the circular and spherical device but with increasing emphasis on the rectilinear.
most elegant ever. Conceived in the spring of 1984, the elevator
grilles on the third to thirteenth floors featured oval shapes he
later associated with 'seed germs', the embryo of the life-force
discussed in 'Inspiration', his prose-poem of 1886. Fixed to
vertical axes and pinned together horizontally, each 'germ' had
four stamens forming a diagonal cross. ...The elevators,
stairwells, and the lobby in the Stock Exchange showed
Sullivan's ornament at its mature best, and though some was
saved when the building was razed, most of it was lost.'
The design for the grilles illustrated in the same work p. 317 as well as Brian A. Spencer, The Prairie School Tradition, Whitney Library of Design, N.Y., 1979, p. 32; and Chapman, Jackson and Huntley, Louis H. Sullivan Architectural Ornament Collection Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Office of Cultural Arts and University Museums, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois, 1981, fig. 37; and John Vinci, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Stock Exchange Trading Room, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1977, pp. 22, 23 showing photographs of the grilles, in situ and p. 20 for a discussion of the design.
The Chicago Stock Exchange was one of the last major commissions by Adler & Sullivan prior to the dissolution of the firm. Two architects who would go on to establish reputations of their own were in their employ at the time of this commission: Frank Lloyd Wright and George Grant Elmslie. There is a remarkable similarity between the present example and gates which Wright would later design for the Nathan Moore and the Francis Apartments, Chicago in 1895. The latter rely heavily on the interaction of the circular and spherical device but with increasing emphasis on the rectilinear.