The Nature of Ornament: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School

The question then arises as to why Nature captured the Arts & Crafts imagination so thoroughly and powerfully. Far from simply being a kind of large-scale pattern book of "artistic" motifs, Nature, and natural forms, were studied not only for the shapes they provided to the artistic eye, but, more importantly, for the concepts of simplicity, grace, design and logic that Nature had come to embody in the Arts & Crafts mindset. In contrast to the average Victorian’s view of the natural world, which was one of fear and suspicion, to the Arts & Crafts adherent Nature was felt to personify certain truths and virtues that were central to the philosophy of the Arts & Crafts ideal: integrity, suitability of form to function, and a certain unfettered exuberance that was unstudied and therefore "natural."

To be truthful, a few pioneering architects, designers and writers of the late 1800’s had already begun to lead the way towards a re-examination of the position of Nature, and a re-conceptualization of Nature as a source of aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual inspiration and guidance. As early as 1856, Owen Jones, in this influential book The Grammar of Ornament, wrote that direct copies of "flowers or other natural objects should not be used as ornaments, but conventional representations founded upon them." Here, Jones is using the word "conventional" to mean stylized or abstracted. His book, which contained full color plates of motifs and ornaments derived from a variety of historical and natural sources, was widely used by European and American architects, artists and designers. Frank Lloyd Wright had a copy in his library, as did, no doubt, many other Prairie School architects and designers.

Jones’ book was not the only publication at the time to promote Nature as a source of design motifs. Christopher Dresser’s Principles of Decorative Design of 1873 and Viollet-le-Duc’s Entretiens sur l’architecture of the following year both dealt with the same general subject, and the Philadelphia architect Frank Furness wrote that one should "work directly from Nature … there is nothing in Nature that cannot be brought into play either as the main feature or an accessory in a design."

Similar concepts and approaches to design were being formulated in Chicago as well, and there is no question that one of the most important and influential architects in the city at the turn of the 20^th century was Louis Sullivan. Upon completing his schooling and early apprenticeship, which included a year in Furness’ office, Sullivan came to Chicago in 1875, forming a partnership with Dankmar Adler, which lasted until 1895. Trained in the classical Beaux-Arts tradition but fired with a radical zeal for avant-garde design theory, Sullivan served as mentor and trailblazer for most of the Prairie School’s major figures.

His rich and distinctive style of foliate ornamentation was based in part on the work of Furness, partly on books such as The Grammar of Ornament, and partly on the reform-gothic motifs of the great English designer, William Morris. To this potent mix, however, Sullivan brought his own unique intellect, combining theories about Nature and natural design gleaned from such varied sources as Thoreau, Emerson and the metaphysical writers to Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. In fact, a Chicago newspaper reporter, sent to interview Sullivan on the progress of the Auditorium Building, complained that Sullivan "cared more about Darwin than he did about bricks and mortar." Indeed, Sullivan’s famous and often-quoted dictum, "Form Follows Function" could easily be viewed as a succinct summation of Darwin’s theories of evolution.

Independently of the movement in Chicago but expressing a very similar viewpoint, Gustav Stickley wrote in his Craftsman magazine about his own approach to design, stating that "anyone who starts to make a piece of furniture with a decorative form in mind starts at the wrong end. The sole consideration at the basis of the design must be the thing itself and not its ornamentation." This brief quote from a longer article clearly delineates the conceptual underpinnings of Arts & Crafts design theory and practice, and underscores the progress towards a more abstract approach to creation and design.

Virtually all creative minds of the period embraced Nature as the ideal paradigm of simplicity, honesty and integrated design and function; all qualities which were highly prized as a philosophy of life as well as design. To create a Teco vase, for example, or a Kalo floriform bowl, or any of the many Arts & Crafts objects that, through their direct form or implied shape referred to Nature, was to capture in that object some of the noble and beneficial qualities of Nature itself. Consider what Frank Lloyd Wright had to say on the subject. "What right has Man," he argued, to outrage Nature by setting at defiance all her teachings, which mean to him the best he can ever hope to get out of life?" He goes on to say that the architect or designer should "learn from Nature her simple truths of form, function and grace of line." If these lessons could be learned, Wright reasoned, "Nature would show you that all arrangement is organic and therefore complete in itself, and your work would have the repose which only a sense of completeness can give."