Art & Art History ETDs

Publication Date

7-27-1976

Abstract

Harvey Ellis as Architect and Draftsman is first and foremost an attempt to sort out the facts of Harvey Ellis' career. This is necessary because over the years authors have lost the proper perspective on his life and work. Ellis has become known as a genius-­has been regarded as the equal of Richardson, Sullivan, and Wright. This attitude has led to the exaggeration of possible events into actual events. Harvey Ellis having been an employee of Richardson and Sullivan is a case in point. Once the perspective of Ellis as a mediocre easily influenced designer, but an excellent draftsman is regained, Ellis' career begins to fall into place. For example one is able to question such "facts" as Ellis having worked for Richardson in Albany. Better sense can also be made of Ellis' incredibly erratic level of production. Second almost nothing has been written of Ellis' years with Eckel and Mann in St. Joseph and St. Louis and this is a beginning at filling that gap. I did preliminary work in both cities and found that Ellis was not the designer he had been for Buffington in Minneapolis. Rather he was a designer of residences, but more generally was confined to being a draftsman for Eckel and Mann. He seems to have been a design partner with the ambiguous George R. Mann. The investigation stressed that Ellis cannot be considered as some magical genius who went about the midwest doing brilliant designs for unknown architects. He was a good draftsman who but for his fantastic drawings would not have been remembered by posterity. Despite the erratic quality of Ellis' architectural production, one finds that he did uniformly beautiful drawings. The third part of my thesis is an attempt to relate the two parts of his career. In fact the two are related to the point that one could not have matured without the other. His characteristic picturesque Richardsonian Romanesque would not have been without his free-flowing, loose drafting style. In 1885 he jumped to sudden maturity because of the inter-related development of his designs and drawings. The only other drastic stylistic change in his career, his development into an Arts and Crafts designer, shows the same inter-relationship. This thesis is intended as a new starting point from which others can begin to further sort out Ellis' career. This establishes a stylistic development for Harvey Ellis which is needed to make more detailed analyses of his works. It is hoped that this thesis will stimilate interest because although Ellis was not on the par with Richardson, Sullivan, and Wright, his is an important figure. He begins to reveal the essential and often forgotten role of the draftsman in the development of nineteenth century American architecture. Also as an eclectic working in all ranges of quality and variety of styles, he is closer to the average nineteenth century American architect. He should therefore be seen not as a partner with Richardson or as having influenced Sullivan and Wright, but as a foil for these greats. In these terms Ellis can tell us a great deal about the previous century.

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Arts

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Bainbridge Bunting

Second Committee Member

Douglas Roland George

Third Committee Member

Richard Alan Anderson

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