Minneapolis Institute of Art

Lunette and decorative panel, one of twelve

Designer: Louis Henri Sullivan; Northwestern Terra Cotta Works (a.k.a. Norweta)

Date

1884–85

Medium

Terracotta

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Louis Sullivan designed these terracotta panels for the exterior of the Scoville Building in Chicago, one of the Adler and Sullivan firm's earliest commissions. It required them to remodel an existing Adler structure to accord with a new, much larger addition. The terracotta pieces shown here formed part of the organic decoration of stylized plants with which Sullivan tied the two buildings together. This lunette ornamented the arch above the windows of the top (fifth) story. It has an undulating design of ferns unfurling and would have complemented other organically-inspired terracotta pieces throughout the exterior. United States, Americas

The authoritative record is held by Minneapolis Institute of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.