SAARINEN, Eliel
(b. 1873, Rantasalmi, d. 1950, Bloomfield Hills)

Suur-Merijoki Manor: interior

1902
Watercolour, 140 x 200 mm
Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki

Suur-Merijoki Manor is a 'total work of art'. It is a dramatic fortified manor house in a forest setting, with heavy granite foundations, imposing gateways, a massive tower, an English hall with a wide flight of stairs up to the first floor, a billiard room, a boudoir, and a music room. The latter is furnished in exquisite harmony and adorned with wrought, woven, crocheted, painted and sculpted ornament of firmly established, beautiful simplicity.

Eliel Saarinen's watercolour of 1902 shows the interior with the music room in the background.