Sullivan's Great Poem
[Getty Tomb (1890) Louis Sullivan, Adler & Sullivan, architect /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Henry Harrison Getty was a wealthy Chicago lumber merchant, art collector and long
time member of Art Institute's Board of Trustees. So given his wealth and aesthetic sensibilities, it probably isn't surprising that when his wife Carrie Eliza died in February, 1890 he asked architect Louis Sullivan to design a tomb to commemorate the life of his 47-year-old wife.
[Getty Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Could the selection of Sullivan also have come as a result of a monumental mausoleum
the architect had designed for Getty's business partner Martin Ryerson which was located not far from Eliza's resting place? Or perhaps it was Getty's association with the Auditorium Building which Adler & Sullivan had just completed in 1889. Getty was one of the building's bondholders and owned a box in the Auditorium Theater, exquisitely decorated with Sullivan's elaborate ornamentation.
[Getty Tomb, detail /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Whatever the reason, the Getty Tomb has been recognized as one of Sullivan's greatest
accomplishments. The Adler & Sullivan office was a beehive of activity at the time, riding high on the architectural roller coaster, yet Sullivan took the time to personally design the mausoleum and drew the plans and details himself. In 1919 Henry H. Getty died in Paris where he and his only child, Alice had been living since 1910. Henry joined Eliza in Sullivan's little jewel box, followed by Alice who died in 1946 at the age of 80. The small rectangular building isn't Sullivan's largest project by far, but it immortalized its
occupants and became an architectural landmark in more ways than one.
A young man named Frank Lloyd Wright was hired by Sullivan in 1889 as an apprentice
draftsman to help-out on the final drawings of the Auditorium's intricate, Sullivanesque details. Many years later, Wright, reflecting on the Getty Tomb, had this to say, "It is entirely Sullivan's own, a piece of sculpture, a statue, a great poem."
Posted by designslinger at 9/7/2010 1:25 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Architects, History
Tags: Graceland Cemetery Adler and Sullivan Louis Sullivan cemeteries mausoleums
Categories: Architecture, Architects, History
Tags: Graceland Cemetery Adler and Sullivan Louis Sullivan cemeteries mausoleums
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