Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) and American neoclassical architecture after the Palladian style

Thomas Jefferson’s residence, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia was an experimental, functional, and stylistic work in process. Monticello was started around 1769 and continued to be transformed and re-formed by Jefferson until about 1809. Jefferson designed Monticello with it’s outbuildings as a self-contained development functioning as a small village. The view above is the southwest elevation. The natural stone color of the columns have just recently been restored to the way they looked in Jefferson’s day. Photograph by versluis 2013.


Similarly, Jefferson designed the campus for the University of Virginia (1817–26) to be an academic village. The Rotunda that held the library (shown above) stands hierarchically at the center and is flanked by pavilions, which housed various academic departments as well as professors and students. Photograph by versluis 2013.

Regarding Jefferson’s Rotunda design the Library of Congress website titled “Thomas Jefferson: Creating A Virginia Republic” mentions that:

The Rotunda at the University of Virginia was carefully planned by Jefferson to represent the authority of nature and the power of reason. To Jefferson, the classical architecture of Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the sixteenth century, best represented these ideals. The Rotunda originally housed the library, which Jefferson considered the major source of enlightenment and wisdom.

A 1826 Engraving by Henry Schenck Tanner after a drawing by Benjamin Tanner depicting the “Village Design of University of Virginia” (The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, The Albert & Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library)

Jefferson designed the buildings to gather around the Rotunda, which for Jefferson was a symbol of the Temple of Knowledge. The college buildings form a perimeter on three sides around the Lawn, in which the open end provides accessibility to the campus as well as a common green space. It’s interesting that Jefferson’s design expresses visually his belief that all the academic offices and disciplines are connected to one another.


Plan of the University of Virginia from c.1826.

David Handlin explains Thomas Jefferson’s view of education in the new United States of America as:

…a fundamental precondition of responsible citizenship. In his scheme of schooling the university occupied the paramount position. Rather than serving an established religion, as did English universities and those already in existence in the United States, Jefferson’s university was to be based on the “illimitable freedom of the human mind.”(1)

The illustrations are courtesy of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

1. Handlin, David P. American Architecture. 2nd ed. London And New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2004. 44-55. Print.

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Heinrich Campendonk: “Woman with Fish,” 1919 — masterful figure/ground relationships

Heinrich Campendonk
Dutch, born in Germany, 1889–1957
Woman with Fish, 1919
Woodcut
From the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Photograph by versluis 2013

In this delightful woodcut the printmaker sees the negative space (ground) as significant as the positive forms (figure). Campendonk encapsulates the “white” shapes by using black shapes, exaggerating the visual tension and producing an image of greater emotive impact. To highlight this observation, Emil Ruder writes in his book Typography, “The modern artist raises empty space to be an element of equal value in design. Instead of space flowing round the surface [as did the Renaissance artist] we have surface tension. The white surfaces are enriched with tensions and the white is activated up to the edge of the format.” (1)

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art didactic explains the piece this way:

Internationally naïve, this image of a woman amidst all of the comforts of home was inspired by African and folk art, as well as by children’s art. The woman’s table is complete with food and drink, and her cat lingers by her side. Her domestic setting also includes its own inventive work of art. Just behind her hangs a framed picture with cross, moon and stars. Campendonk, a German Expressionist artist noted for his imaginative imagery, enlivens this composition with hard-edge abstract forms—repeated squares and circles within circles—that form decorative, rhythmic patterns.

1. Ruder, Emil. Typography: A Manual of Design. Student Ed. New York: Hastings House, Publishers, Inc., 1981. 48-49. Print.

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Josef Hoffmann: one of the first modern designers

Josef Hoffmann, designer, Austrian, 1870–1956
Wiener Werkstätte, manufacturer, Austria, 1903–1932
Samovar, designed ca. 1911
Brass and walnut
From the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Photograph by versluis 2013

The simple circular portholes serve as air intakes and for heat source observation.  The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art didactic for this piece explains the artifact this way:

“To the age its art, to art its freedom.” These words, spoken by Austrian architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, underscore his belief that art need not copy the past but rather reflect present-day styles. Freed from historical constraints, Hoffmann abstracted his designs into simple geometric forms. Decorative metalwork provided Hoffmann with a malleable medium to be hammered, polished, punched or enhanced with applied ornamentation. This samovar, composed of a kettle with a base and burner to heat water for tea, exemplifies Hoffmann’s ability to combine multiple, functional parts into a unified form with subtle ornamentation. Despite the samovar’s simplicity and moderately priced materials, it golden surface and dark wood illustrates Hoffman’s rich and elegant aesthetics.

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Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820) architect of the Baltimore Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Baltimore Basilica, built from 1806-1821, was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Latrobe is known as the first professionally trained architect in the United States, and was Thomas Jefferson’s chosen architect of the U.S. Capital Building. Photograph by versluis 2013.


A watercolor showing the architectural elevation and cross-section indicating the interior details. The bell towers are are not the same as was actually built. This piece is in the Baltimore Basilica archives, photograph by versluis 2013. 


The wonderful details of the “coffered” dome and skylights. Latrobe’s chandelier design is an exact reproduction. Photograph taken with available light by versluis 2013.


Interior view showing the pews, organ loft, and side windows, which apparently were suggested to Latrobe by Thomas Jefferson. The fresco shown above is one of four designed by Latrobe honoring the four gospel writers of the New Testament. Photograph taken with available light by versluis 2013.


View of the masonry vaults that support the huge weight of the dome. Latrobe’s mathematics and engineering ingenuity seems very modern. Photograph taken with available light by versluis 2013.

For the design of the Baltimore Basilica, built from 1806-1821, Latrobe worked with Renaissance-style engineering ingenuity to produce a remarkable building. The Basilica is of the neoclassical typology, which was au courant at the turn of the 18th century in Western Europe, particularly in France. However, Latrobe’s brand of neoclassicism creates a striking edifice that freely and soberly translates the spirit of ancient Greek architectural principles and proportions, which results in a distinctively American architecture. The spare interior balances elegantly with the wonderful details of coffered dome and skylights. The combination of formal simplicity and structural complexity is harmonized to the service of Roman Catholic liturgy and symbolic of God’s grace. With a minimal amount of ornament (decoration meant monarchical decadence to Latrobe) the monochromatic yellow color scheme helps accentuate the effect of a worship space that is filled with natural light (the light of inner heaven) entering through the dome and large, clear glass side windows.

To give further insight into this building, The Catholic Review published an article by Suzanne Molino Singleton to commemorate a major restoration of the Basilica completed in 2006.

Singleton’s essay quotes Jeffery Cohen, architectural historian from Bryn Mawr College, who writes, “The basilica’s architectural significance is less a matter of such single features, and more a matter of monumental yet simplified geometry that vividly brought this more severe phase of neoclassicism to the heart of an American city. ” (1)

Singleton continues by saying, “Mr. Cohen explains that Latrobe had worked in this vein on a smaller scale in Philadelphia, and more in internal spaces at the U.S. Capitol, “but in Baltimore he had more scope and scale, and it challenged him to explore more complex possibilities of architectural iconography and lighting.” (2)

Because of its hilltop building site, the Basilica, at the time it was constructed, would stand out for all to see as a symbol and beacon for religious freedom in the new democratic republic. Today the Basilica is surrounded by the city buildings of downtown Baltimore and has become integral in its urban environment. 

1. Singleton, Suzanne Molino. “An Architectural Masterpiece.” The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ed. Daniel L. Medinger. Baltimore: The Catholic Review of The Catholic Foundation, 26 Oct. 2006: B29-30. Print. 
2. Ibid. B30.

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“flowing curves and simple elegance” — the cantilevered MR Chair (named for its designer Mies van der Rohe)

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, designer
German, 1886–1969
Manufactured by Bamberg Metallwerkstätten, Berlin, Neukölln
Armchair (MR20), designed in 1927, manufactured 1931
Nickel-plated steel, steel and cane seat
From the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Photographs by versluis 2013

Although the tubular steel chair was perfected at the Bauhaus in the mid-1920s by the development of Marcel Breuer’s four-legged Club Chair. Equally impressive are Mies van der Rohe’s cantilever tubular steel chairs that were designed and manufactured from 1927–31 and inspired by technology as well as Dutch architect Mart Stam. The MR Chair was a collaboration with designer Lilly Reich. Miesian tubular steel furniture are perfect accents for his architecture, particularly for his residential interiors designed with Reich.

In their very fine biography titled Mies van der Rohe coauthors Franz Schulze and Edward Windhorst describe the MR Chair as having “flowing curves and simple elegance.”(1) The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art didactic for this piece explains the chair this way:

The architect and designer Mies van der Rohe asserted, “Form is not the aim of our work but only the result.” With the MR20 chair, Mies aimed to mass-produce inexpensive furniture from innovative materials such as tubular steel. The result was this curvilinear, lightweight chair that comfortably bends beneath the sitter’s weight while maintaining a sleek, elegant appearance. Mies stripped the traditional armchair of its bulk and relied on the light and flexible steel frame and cane seat to provide comfortable support. The fusion of handcrafted detail with modern technology embodies the ideals of the German design school, the Bauhaus (1919–1933). With his contemporaries, Mies the Bauhaus’ last director, brought the design principles of the Bauhaus to America [United States] in the late 1930s.

For further reading about the Bauhaus here is a wonderful reference piece from Archdaily: Infographic: The Bauhaus, Where Form Follows Function.

1. Schulze, Franz, and Edward Windhorst. Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography. revised ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012. 104-05. Print.

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Sullivan’s the Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association Building (1917), Sidney, Ohio

Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association Building was erected in 1917-18 in Sidney, Ohio. The Ohio Historical Marker for this landmark states, “One of the last works of Louis Henri Sullivan (1856–1924), the American architect whose original ideas of functional design and decorative ornament provided a basis for modern American architecture.” Photographs by versluis 2013.


The western facade with a framed bank of art glass windows reinforces the geometry of the building.


Terra-cotta ornament detail indicating a classical style handiwork with indigenous plants and leaves symbolizing a bountiful land of progress and prosperity. The photograph also shows Sullivan’s signature “jewel box” bank building material: tapestry brick.


Interior view of art glass windows by Art Institute of Chicago professor Louis Millet celebrates the exterior ornamentation and creates the emotive effect of natural light through green foliage.

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Sullivan’s the Farmers & Merchants Union Bank (1920), Columbus, Wisconsin: “a little bit of cathedral in it”

Interior view from just inside the entry doors of the Farmers and Merchants Union Bank.
Photograph by versluis, 2013

All of Louis Sullivan’s “Jewel Box” Bank buildings celebrate light with a wonderful sparkling emerald effect created with art glass. It seems that Sullivan  uses stained glass with a sprightly touch to create a spiritual clerestory wall of weightlessness. This metaphor of light contrasts beautifully with the solid masonry wall underneath.

Dordt College engineering professor Ethan Brue shares this quote from writer Samuel Florman with his students. The passage fits Sullivan very well:

Not only cathedrals, but every great engineering work is an expression of motivation and of purpose which cannot be divorced from religious implications. This truth provides the engineer with what many would assert to be the ultimate existential pleasure.
I do not want to get carried away with this point. The age of cathedral building is long past. And, as I have already said, less than one quarter of today’s engineers are engaged in construction activities of any sort. But every man-made structure, no matter how mundane has a little bit of cathedral in it, since man cannot help but transcend himself as soon as he begins to design and construct. (1)

This 1920s interior view is looking back towards the entry doors of the Farmers and Merchants Union Bank, which has the distinction of being one of Sullivan’s last architectural projects that was built.
Photograph by Clarance Fuerman (Fuermann, Henry, and Sons [Chicago])
Location: 159 W. James St., Columbus, Wisconsin
Image is from the Art Institute of Chicago, Archival Collection Name Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection. Image is copyrighted

1. Florman, Samuel C. The Existential Pleasures of Engineering. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1996. 125. Print.

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