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Eliel Saarinen
"Portrait of a Young Eero Saarinen", Painted By His Father Eliel Saarinen, Oil

c. 1917

About the Item

This portrait of a precocious young boy is significant for two reason: the subject is Eero Saarinen, the famed designer of tulip chairs and architect best known for designing the Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., the TWA Flight Center in New York City, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, and the painter is his father Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect who designed the Helsinki Central railway station, the National Museum of Finland, the Vyborg railway station, the Hvitträsk, and the Kleinhans Music Hall in Finland and the famous Cranbrook Academy campus, where he would then go on to teach at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and become its president in 1932. It's provenance is Eero Saarinen's own son, the award-winning cinematographer Eric Saarinen. The painting is Painting is 23.25 x 16.25. Eliel Saarinen was born in 1873 in Rantasalmi, Finland. was educated in Helsinki at the Helsinki University of Technology. From 1896 to 1905 he worked as a partner with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren at the firm Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen. His first major work was showcased at the Finnish pavilion at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. His early style was known as Finnish National Romanticism. After moving to the United States he designed the Gulf Building in Houston and became a visiting professor at the University of Michigan. In 1925 he was requested to design the Cranbrook campus. His work has been exhibited in many prestigious places, such as his iconic tea urn at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the St. Louis Art Museum, Cranbrook Art Museum, the British Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The touring exhibition Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, which also traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art also hold tea urn-related Eliel Saarinen designs. Eero Saarinen was born in 1910. He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and took courses in sculpture and furniture design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He had a close relationship with fellow students Charles and Ray Eames, and became good friends with Florence Knoll (née Schust). He began his studies in sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, France, in September 1929. He then went on to study at the Yale School of Architecture, completing his studies in 1934. In 1940 he designed his famous Tulip chairs and in 1948 he designed what would be his most well-known sculpture, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. His Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois would also achieve international acclaim while the first major work by Saarinen, in collaboration with his father, was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, which follows the rationalist design Miesian style, incorporating steel and glass but with the addition of accent of panels in two shades of blue. After his father's death in July 1950, Saarinen founded his own architect's office, Eero Saarinen and Associates. He was the principal partner from 1950 until his death. The firm carried out many of its most important works, including the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Holmdel Township, New Jersey; Gateway Arch National Park (including the Gateway Arch) in St. Louis, Missouri; the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana; the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which he worked on with Charles J. Parise; the main terminal of Washington Dulles International Airport; and the new East Air Terminal of the old Athens airport in Greece, which opened in 1967. Many of these projects use catenary curves in their structural designs. Eero Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1952. He was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1954. In 1962, he was posthumously awarded a gold medal by the American Institute of Architects. In 1940, he received two first prizes together with Charles Eames in the furniture design competition of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 1948, he won the first prize in the Jefferson National Monument competition. The Boston Arts festival in 1953 gave him their Grand Architectural Award. He received the First Honor award of the American Institute of Architects twice, in 1955 and 1956, and their gold medal in 1962. In 1965 he took first prize in US Embassy competition in London
  • Creator:
    Eliel Saarinen
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1917
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 29.25 in (74.3 cm)Width: 22.5 in (57.15 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Detroit, MI
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU128616998592
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