Helen Balfour Morrison’s Mies van der Rohe portrait gifted to Farnsworth House
JULY 10, 2019
On July 10, a digitally remastered print of Helen Balfour Morrison’s iconic portrait of Mies van der Rohe was gifted to the famed Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. Presented by MSF Trustee Chair Carol Doty to Scott Mehaffey, Executive Director of the Farnsworth House, it will be displayed in the Farnsworth Visitor Center. The house, built in 1949-1951 in the international style, is one of the world’s most widely recognized and studied structures of the 20th century, visited annually by thousands of architecture students and professionals for whom the house is an international pilgrimage site. Architect Philip Johnson commissioned this portrait for his monograph of the Museum of Modern Art’s 1947 exhibition of Mies’ work. Oddly, Morrison was not credited for the photo until 2016, when it was discovered on a visit to MoMA by MSF.
Carol Doty and Scott Mehaffey.