link: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Unified Vision: The Architecture and Design of the Prairie School
navigation spacer Introduction navigation spacer The Collection navigation spacer Purcell-Cutts House Tour navigation spacer Architectural Tour navigation spacer Comments navigation spacer
1st Floor Plan 1st Floor Plan 1st Floor Plan 1st Floor Plan 1st Floor Plan 1st Floor Plan 1st Floor Plan Kitchen Dining Room Porch Entryway (Interior) Writing Nook Living Room Hearth Window Seat
Purcell-Cutts House
 Introduction
 link: 1st Floor
 link: Entryway - Interior
 link: Living Room
 Dining Room
 link: Porch
 link: Kitchen
1st Floor Plan
 link: 2nd Floor
 Nuts & Bolts
 Purcell's Own House Notes
Entryway - Interior
previous stop Purcell-Cutts House Entryway - Interior next stop
360 degree view  

Related Images
Entryway (Interior) related image
Entryway (Interior) related image
Entryway (Interior) related image
Entryway (Interior) related image

Entryway (Interior)
The Mural and Screen
A large oil portrait of Grandfather Gray at Island Lake hangs just inside the entryway. Nebraskan Lawton Parker painted it on canvas in the early 1890s. After Parker won a drawing contest in the Presbyterian weekly The Interior, Dr. Gray brought him to Chicago, where his studies at the Art Institute were supported by his benefactor. Eventually, Parker also studied in Paris, and made a name for himself as an Impressionist painter. According to family history, this painting was displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Purcell inherited it upon Dr. Gray's death, and in 1913 installed it here, mural-like, with wood elements framing it into the wall. It was the first of a series of artworks Purcell planned for the house; those to follow had to fit within his $100-to-$150 budget.

Straight ahead is a screen constructed of vertical wood members that separates the stairway, which leads to the private areas, from the main living space. Its airiness is Japanese in character. next stop >


Unified Vision Intro| The Collection| Purcell-Cutts House Tour| Architectural Tour| Comments