baluster from the Carson, Pirie, Scott building, Chicago

George Grant Elmslie

1869–1952

Louis Henry Sullivan

1856–1924

baluster from the Carson, Pirie, Scott building, Chicago, 1899–1904

Where object was made: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Material/technique: cast iron

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 99 x 22.5 cm
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 39 0.9764 x 8 7/8 in

Credit line: Gift of the Art Institute of Chicago

Accession number: 1980.0006

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
"Quilts: A Thread of Modernism," Aug-2005, Debra Thimmesch and Barbara Brackman
This baluster panel is one of twelve from a staircase once located in the Schlesinger and Mayer Company Store (now the Carson Pirie Scott Store) in Chicago.

Chicago was one of the most progressive centers of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States at the turn of the century. It was home to well-known architects and designers of the Prairie School such as Frank Lloyd Wright, George G. Elmslie, and Louis Sullivan. Sullivan’s prairie-style designs emphasized the unification of the exterior of a building with its surroundings as well as a reverence for natural materials. Nature-and particularly plant life-played a central role in his motifs. Sullivan’s forms, not unlike their Nouveau counterparts, evolve from elegant, sinuous lines. They differ, however, in their overall symmetry, which suggests an altogether human imposition of order.