Joseph Maria Olbrich was a central figure in the revolutionary modern art movements that took place in Vienna at the end of the 19th century. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession in 1897 and designed the group’s striking exhibition hall, surmounted by a dome of three thousand gilt laurel leaves, which still stands in Vienna today. Olbrich exhibited this anthropomorphic and now iconic design for a candlestick at the Saint Louis World’s Fair (called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in 1904.