Edgar Miller Legacy

"If it weren’t for Larry, the world wouldn’t know the story and work of Edgar.” We remember the incredible life and career of Larry Zgoda as we endeavor to continue his work of art history and preservation into the future.

Larry Zgoda, a stained-glass artist who helped preserve the legacy of artistic genius Edgar Miller, died at 75. A simple letter dropped in the mail began a relationship that led to Mr. Zgoda working with and helping preserve the legacy of his hero, Edgar Miller.

Today from the Edgar Miller Legacy archive, an untitled lithogrpahic print of a landscape, c. 1920. While he is best known for his Handmade Homes and decorative design, Edgar Miller was an artist who could not resist trying new mediums, and made many copper plate engravings in a variety of styles, especially during his teens and twenties. Here we see Miller practicing incredibly intricate linework and cross hatching, albeit with his characteristically rough, swift strokes, to produce a natural scene of dreamy lights and shadows. This highly composee ethereal print is of an unknown landscape and is one of dozens of such prints held in the Edgar Miller Legacy collection, perhaps a study for a book illustration or a limited edition print.

Another large collection of Miller’s lithographic etchings can be found in the archives of the Art Institute of Chicago, donated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (1876-1966), who was himself a prolific painter, engraver, writer, and independent, local book publisher, who even illustrated for authors such as L. Frank Baum.

In this engraving, Miller seems to somewhat emulate Seymour's personal style and technique for this landscape. While lithography had been used ubiquitously for newspaper, periodical, and book illustration throughout the previous centuries, by the early 1920s when this print was likely made, hand-etched lithographic prints of this sort were becoming a lost art form. Miller was likely also inspired by the lithographic prints of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Ashcan School; and Seymour a collector of local talent who were still interested in practicing a less common print technique, like Miller was.

Though somewhat difficult to decipher, Edgar Miller signed his initials, three lines for an “E” over the two points of an “M” at the bottom right corner of the piece. Swipe to see details!
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Edgar Miller painted thousands of individual panes of stained glass throughout his life, none more extravagant and experimental than those he made for the Handmade Homes in the 1920s and ‘30s. Always looking to iterate on his own work at every opportunity, Miller made sure no two windows shared the exact same design, and he happily experimented with various patterns, textures, styles, and motifs.

These pastel and jewell-toned stained glass pieces, found in the Montgomery Bedroom of the Glasner Studio at the Kogen-Miller Studios, are a notable variation from the darker stained glass colors Miller used in the more public spaces of the homes. The color palette diffuses daytime sunlight and reflects the more domestic nature of the room they decorate, letting the soft, mesmerizing glow fill the room with each sunrise and throughout the day.

You can see and learn more about Edgar Miller’s embedded artwork and stained glass through our Glasner Studio Virtual Tour, or in the beautiful monograph book on the artist, “Edgar Miller at the Handmade Home” – visit us at edgarmiller.org!

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Join us next week for a virtual presentation followed by a Q&A with Executive Director Zac Bleicher on the latest edition of Edgar Miller and the Handmade Home. Upcoming Virtual Talk at Glessner House - Wed. 9/10, 7-8pm.

Fifteen years after the initial publication of the seminal monograph by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams, with photographs by Alexander Vertikoff, the book remains the only book completely dedicated to the story of one of Chicago's most intriguing and prolific artists. With an updated and revised third edition recently published through generous support from the Driehaus Foundation, an upcoming virtual talk hosted by The Glessner House will highlight what new discoveries have been made about Miller's life and career in the past decade and a half, and speak to the future of Miller's extant artwork and architectural sites in Chicago, and beyond. Register for the event at The Glessner House website today!

https://www.glessnerhouse.org/events/edgar-miller-revisited