I may not always know exactly what I'm looking at, but I do know when it's good.
This house in NE Portland is a beauty. Set into the hillside, it looks out to downtown Portland and the western hills. Sunsets and dramatic night lights.
The drama begins at the front gates. Custom metalwork, clean, a perfect foil to the fantastic architectural terra cotta relief set into the south facing wall. David Bales looked at my photo and said "Louis Sullivan. Either a damn good reproduction or the real deal." As soon as he said it, I recognized that curious thistle-like acanthus at the top and bottom of each panel as Sullivan's.
The paired shallow reliefs are wonderful. At least 36 inches tall, matt white glaze, and in perfect condition. Click on the photo for an enlargement.
Makes you really want to know their history, no?
Probably from a building in the early 20th century in the Chicago area. What building? How'd they get from there and then to here and now? History Mystery and aren't they beautiful?
The work we do lives on.....
4 comments:
Hi! I was researching Louis Sullivan bas relief and happened upon a photo you posted on your blog of a house in Portland . The two panels are indeed Louis Sullivan but I don't yet know which building they are from. I have three of those panels, cast from an original by my husband back in the 60's when he was a sculpture student at Yale. A professor had an original and had my husband cast several for him with the arrangement that he could cast some for himself. They currently hang in my dining room . I suspect that these two in the entrance were cast by him. I wish I could ask him who the professor was but sadly my husband died 5 years ago in a canyoneering accident. How they got to Portand is a mystery.
Hello Millie,
The panels were at the home of a retired architect. He told me how he came by them, but I've forgotten by now..
After some research, I found that the panels were in the Schiller Theatre, Chicago. They lined the walls in the Banquet Room.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/151991
Millie,
Would you like to sell the Sullivan pieces? Please answer at
Vernechristensen@comcast.net
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