Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) See works of art Works of Art (20) Essay One of America’s most acclaimed artists, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s career spanned from the 1870s through the 1920s. He embraced virtually every artistic and decorative medium, designing and directing his studios to produce leaded-glass windows, mosaics, lighting, glass, pottery, metalwork, enamels, jewelry, and interiors. As the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany (1812–1902), founder of Tiffany & Company, the fancy goods store that became the renowned jewelry and silver firm, Tiffany chose to pursue his own artistic interests in lieu of joining the family business. Tiffany began his career as a painter, working under the influence of such artists as George Inness (1825–1894) and Samuel Colman (1832–1920).

Possessing financial means, he traveled extensively through Europe, North America, and—in 1870–71, with painter Robert Swain Gifford (1840–1905)—North Africa, where he derived inspiration for Snake Charmer at Tangier, Africa ( 21.170 ). Completed in 1872 and exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the painting shows Tiffany’s penchant for exotic art and architecture. Beginning in the late 1870s, Tiffany turned his attention to decorative arts and interiors, although he never abandoned painting. His first significant interior design project was for his 1878 top-floor home and studio at the Bella Apartments on 48 East 26th Street in New York City. The leaded-glass window from the entrance hall ( 2002.474 ), one of his earliest windows, illustrates an unconventional use of glass, including experimental opalescent, marbleized, and confetti-type glass, as well as crown glass and rough-cut “jewels.” This glass fashioned a window of strikingly abstract design suggestive of a bold paintbrush stroke.

A few years later, Tiffany’s father commissioned McKim, Mead & White to construct a picturesque Romanesque Revival multifamily dwelling on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Madison Avenue in New York. Completed in 1885, Louis Tiffany and his family occupied the top two floors. His exotic studio, the site of artistic creations and social gatherings, was a frequently photographed space. A pastel rendering ( 2003.606 ) of his second wife, Louise, in a corner of the studio demonstrates Tiffany’s deft hand in this difficult medium as he translated and differentiated various lush fabrics and textures. Tiffany and Colman (by this point a business associate) worked together to design the furnishings and interiors for the New York mansion (completed in 1892) of Louisine and Henry Osborne Havemeyer, Tiffany’s most ardent patrons. As part of the interior design, all surfaces in the house were treated and the decoration blended various styles. The library, also called the Rembrandt Room, was Celtic-inspired, as illustrated by the armchair from this space ( 1992.125 ).

The form of the chair recalls Viking precedents, and the carved interlace presents Celtic motifs. Tiffany designed private interiors and public spaces for numerous clients. For the widow of Henry Field, brother of Chicago merchant Marshall Field, Tiffany designed a gallery (that no longer survives) for the Art Institute of Chicago. An existing design drawing ( 67.654.4 ) illustrates the south wall of the gallery: a fireplace, with mosaic above and on the sides, is flanked by ebony pilasters surrounded by green walls. This is one of an extensive collection of Tiffany design drawings in the Museum’s collection. By late 1892 or early 1893, Tiffany built a glasshouse in Corona, Queens, New York, and, with Arthur Nash, a skilled glassworker from Stourbridge, England, his furnaces developed a method whereby different colors were blended together in the molten state, achieving subtle effects of shading and texture. Recalling the Old English word fabrile (hand-wrought), Tiffany named the blown glass from his furnaces Favrile, a trademark that signified glass of hand-made and unique quality.

In 1896, the Museum received fifty-six blown vases and roundels from H. O. Havemeyer, one of the first collectors of Favrile glass ( 96.17.10 ). Almost thirty years later, Tiffany loaned to the Museum twenty-seven pieces from his own collection, representing a wider range of production techniques and more developed styles of glass. One of these new techniques produced glass that resembled Lava or “volcanic” glass ( 51.121.13 ), with broad areas of gold luster meant to mimic hot molten rock spilling from the mouth of a volcano. The rough, black areas were made by introducing bits of basalt or talc into the molten glass formed into vases in organic, irregular shapes. Of all of Tiffany’s artistic endeavors, leaded-glass brought him the greatest recognition. Tiffany and his early rival, John La Farge, revolutionized the look of stained glass, which had remained essentially unchanged since medieval times when craftsmen utilized flat panes of white and colored glass with details painted with glass paints before firing and leading.

Tiffany and La Farge experimented with new types of glass and achieved a more varied palette with richer hues and greater density. By 1881, each had patented an opalescent glass, a unique American phenomenon that featured a milky, opaque, and sometimes rainbow-hued appearance with the introduction of light. Internally colored with variegated shades of the same or different hues, Tiffany’s Favrile glass enabled craftsmen to substitute random tonal gradations, lines, textures, and densities inherent in the material itself for pictorial details. Magnolias and Irises ( 1981.159 ), executed by Tiffany Studios around 1908, was designed as a memorial window based on a well-known motif—the River of Life. It depicts magnolias composed of opalescent drapery glass, heavily folded or creased glass, and iris in multihued tones illustrating Tiffany’s ability to “paint” with glass. Growing out of an interest in interior decorating, Tiffany and his studios turned toward another venture in 1898—lighting and lamps.

Although Tiffany’s craftsmen used patterns to make lampshades, each was unique due to the selection of the individual pieces of glass with their varied colors and densities. A water lily lamp ( 1974.214.15a, b ), with its organic bronze support composed of lily pads, is crowned by a shade featuring pink opalescent stems that terminate in creamy water lily blossoms against a background of rippled blue glass, evocative of a bog where water lilies dwell. Mosaics were also a natural progression and extension of Tiffany’s work in Favrile and leaded glass. Glass mosaics were used in interior settings, initially for church interiors and fireplace surrounds, but then developed into full artistic works. Inspired by Byzantine churches Tiffany surveyed on his European travels that used flat, solid-color squares, or tesserae, he improved upon the tradition by incorporating innovative techniques of modeling and shading to produce a wide range of colors within glass. Glass was also cut into different shapes to enhance pictorial qualities.

Garden Landscape and Fountain ( 1976.105 ) is a tour de force of mosaic work, with its subtle color shading, textured glass, and uniquely cut pieces set in a challenging pictorial composition. In 1899, Tiffany introduced enamelwork in London, where he exhibited plaques and vases made in the firm’s unique style. Layers of translucent enamel in wide-ranging naturalistically shaded hues were applied to a luminous surface that was usually gilt, and finished with an iridescent coating that provided a rainbow luster. One of fifteen enamelworks that Tiffany lent to the Museum in 1925 ( 51.121.29 ) shows bold repoussé in plump purple plums and translucent green foliage that envelop the large round bowl, echoing the shape of a plum. A drawing recently donated to the Museum ( 2005.495 ) depicts the enamel bowl with its ripening plums and sinewy branches. A few years after mastering enamelwork, Tiffany launched a pottery studio, capitalizing on the extraordinary popularity of American ceramic vessels at the turn of the century.

His designs were inspired by contemporary European, particularly French, ceramics , exceptional examples of which he had seen on trips to Paris. The shape of the Museum’s small symmetrical vase is Chinese-inspired ( 51.121.21 ), with sophisticated red, dark green, and yellow glazes that recall those of the French ceramicist Pierre-Adriene Dalpayrat (1844–1910), whose work Tiffany admired. Tiffany was knowledgeable about jewelry trends through art periodicals, international expositions, and, of course, his father’s firm, Tiffany & Company—to which he was appointed art director upon his father’s death in 1902. His earliest jewelry designs were exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. In addition to enamels, Favrile glass vessels, and pottery, Tiffany’s jewelry garnered attention and favorable press by the art critics of the period. An interest in nature, use of semiprecious stones with enamel, and handcraftsmanship elevate his unusual jewelry to the status of art ( 2002.620 ). At about the same time, Tiffany was completing his Long Island country home, Laurelton Hall.

Built at the height of his career, between 1902 and 1905, the eighty-four-room, eight-level estate was situated on nearly 600 acres overlooking Cold Spring Harbor in Oyster Bay, New York. A showcase for his unique integration of nature and exoticism, Laurelton Hall was the ultimate expression of Tiffany’s aesthetic ideals, envisioned as a total work of art. This was his dream home, where creativity flowed freely and convention was eschewed in place of novelty. Now sadly destroyed, remnants of the estate are preserved in museum collections. The four-columned loggia that currently graces The Charles Engelhard Court of the Museum’s American Wing ( 1978.10.1 ) was originally installed on the south side of Laurelton Hall. Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art July 2007 Citation Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney, and Monica Obniski. “Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.

(July 2007) Further Reading Eidelberg, Martin, et al. The Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005. Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist's Country Estate. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. See on MetPublications Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56 (Summer 1998). See on MetPublications McKean, Hugh F. The "Lost" Treasures of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer, 2002. Zapata, Janet. The Jewelry and Enamels of Louis Comfort Tiffany. New York: Abrams, 1993. Additional Essays by Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen Munger, Jeffrey, and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. “ East and West: Chinese Export Porcelain .” (October 2003) Veith, Barbara, and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen.

“ Women China Decorators .” (April 2013) Additional Essays by Monica Obniski Louis Comfort Tiffany - World's Most Comprehensive Collection Louis Comfort Tiffany Follow Us on Instagram Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany, one of the most creative and prolific designers of the late 19th-century, declared that his life-long goal was “the pursuit of beauty.” With its comprehensive assemblage of Tiffany’s work, the Morse Museum’s collection uniquely documents that quest. Although his father, Charles Lewis, had founded the most prestigious silver and jewelry company in America, Louis chose another professional direction. Originally trained as a painter, he began studying the chemistry and techniques of glassmaking when he was 24. He developed this interest as a partner in the firm of Louis C. Tiffany and Company, Associated Artists (1881–83) provided innovative interior decoration for clients ranging from Mark Twain in Hartford, Connecticut to President Chester Arthur at the White House. A New Method of Glassmaking In 1885, Tiffany established his own firm and while he continued to undertake decorating commissions, his focus was on new methods of glass manufacture .

Four years earlier he registered a patent for opalescent window glass, a radical new treatment whereby several colors were combined and manipulated to create an unprecedented range of hues and three-dimensional effects. Tiffany believed that this new material allowed more fidelity to the inherent nature of the medium, because it enabled form to be defined by the glass itself rather than by painting onto the glass. Opalescent glass, however, was firmly rejected by the other important school of the stained glass revival, which advocated the Gothic tradition of painting with enamel on clear, uniformly colored “antique” glass. The passionate moral dimension of late 19th-century taste is clearly seen in Boston glassmaker Charles Connick’s declaration that his firm’s greatest contribution to stained glass was “rescuing it from the abysmal depth of opalescent picture windows.” Those, like Connick, who followed the medieval precedent of painting on clear glass, were in bitter opposition to Tiffany and to John La Farge, the artist who had developed opalescent glass about the same time as Tiffany, and was his chief competitor. Both schools thought that they alone were being "truthful," an ideal central to the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement . Equally important was the goal of design unity.

First manifested in his efforts to create complete interiors, Tiffany’s commitment to unity was extended to the design and manufacture of stained glass. The leading necessary to hold the pieces of glass together became a fully integrated design element, simulating, for example, the stems of plants. Tiffany was convinced the actual production of a stained-glass window required the artist’s involvement at every stage, even in a factory setting—from creating the first sketches to overseeing how the glass was selected, cut, and assembled. Inspired By Nature Tiffany’s aesthetic was based on his conviction that nature should be the primary source of design inspiration. Intoxicated by color, he translated into glass the lush palette found in flowers and plants. This fascination with nature and with extending the capabilities of the medium led to the exploration of another technique—in 1893 Tiffany introduced his first blown-glass vases and bowls, called “Favrile.” The name, he declared, was taken from an old English word for hand made. Favrile glass quickly gained international renown for its surface iridescence and brilliant colors. International Acclaim Tiffany was among the first American designers to be acclaimed abroad.

Favrile glass, together with stained-glass windows such as the Four Seasons, was shown at world’s fairs and sold in galleries like Siegfried Bing’s L’Art Nouveau, which served as a conduit for the most innovative design at the turn of the century. In the United States, Tiffany continued to execute special commissions for stained glass and glass mosaics. Much of this work was for churches, whose patronage Tiffany often put at risk because of his strong preference for landscapes instead of traditional religious figural scenes. He also expanded his more commercial activities and established a metalwork department, producing lamps, desk sets, and chandeliers that were sold in the thousands through his own New York showroom, company catalogues and department stores. More personalized expressions continued as well: In 1898 Tiffany began experimenting with enamels, in 1900 with a line of pottery, and by 1904 with designs for jewelry. While glass is the most significant medium in which Tiffany worked, he designed, fabricated, or sold everything that made up an interior, including furniture, textiles, and wall coverings. A desire to create a unified artistic expression culminated in the last house he designed in its entirety—his own.

Laurelton Hall , in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, was completed in 1904. The Morse Museum is the greatest repository of Tiffany furniture, stained glass, mosaic work, and architectural elements from this masterpiece. Dumbfounding Versatility Tiffany’s work reflects the efforts to resolve the conflicting ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. William Morris, its English protagonist, had demanded: "What business have we with art at all unless all can share it?" Yet most companies could not produce affordable art for the home while retaining high standards and individual expression. Tiffany, however, successfully created an art industry. He triumphed where others had failed because his personal fortune allowed him to sacrifice company profits in the interests of artistic achievement. In addition, he provided an extraordinary range of products, so that consumers at almost every economic level had access to his religion of beauty. The visitor to the Morse Museum is invited to examine what a critic in 1900 called Tiffany’s “dumbfounding versatility”—from the lamps that were made in the thousands to the unique windows executed for special commissions or for the artist’s own use. Louis Comfort Tiffany, c. 1920s Photo by Blank & Stoller Gift of Mrs.

Benjamin Hosking (67-035) Tiffany Studios, New York City, 1902–32 (65-028) Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, New York City, 1892–1900 Marks: Louis C. Tiffany R4017 (57-005) Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages October 15, 2006 - January 15, 2007 A comprehensive exhibition and examination of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany will be on view at Carnegie Museum of Art October 15, 2006 - January 15, 2007. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages features more than 130 works of art in a wide range of media including stained glass windows, Favrile glass, mosaics, enamels, ceramics, paintings, photography, metalwork, furniture, and jewelry. Carnegie Museum of Art is the final stop on the national tour of this historic exhibition, which was organized by Exhibitions International and Marilynn A.

Johnson, former curator of American decorative arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the only venue on the tour to exhibit Tiffany's over-sized bi-fold door from the Mark Twain House, which has not been on view outside of the Hartford, CN, house since 1958. Born in 1848, Tiffany was the eldest son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of the luxury goods and jewelry store Tiffany & Co. While it was expected that he involve himself with the family business, Louis Comfort Tiffany preferred to study painting, the first of many careers. During his lifetime, Tiffany was also an interior decorator, landscape designer, architect, and designer of decorative arts in all media including glass, ceramic, metal, wood, fabric, and paper. Though not a craftsman, Tiffany was a perfectionist who hired the very best men and women artisans to work in his studios. Tiffany learned marketing and entrepreneurship from his father. "We are going after the money there is in art, but the art is there, all the same," said Tiffany to Candace Wheeler, one of his partners.

His participation in the international exhibitions of the time -- in cities like Philadelphia, Paris, Chicago, and Turin, Italy -- made Tiffany and his work widely known in the United States and abroad. In 1865, Tiffany took the first of many tours to Europe and North Africa; these experiences provided a foundation for the themes exemplified in this exhibition and that ran throughout his work: nature, the Near and Far East, antiques and archaeology, and abstraction. Tiffany's innovative aesthetic bridged and transcended the avant-garde trends of the late 19th century-the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and Art Nouveau. With the modern aesthetic of the post World War I world, however, Tiffany's designs were considered out-of-date, and by the time of his death in 1933 he was nearly forgotten. Renewed interest in Tiffany's work by collectors and scholars, such as Museum of Modern Art design curator Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., furniture designer Edward Wormley, and art historian Robert Koch, surfaced in the post World War II years.

Museums like The Museum of Modern Art added Tiffany to their collections and by the late 1960s, entertainers such as the Beatles, Paul Simon, and Barbra Streisand were acquiring Tiffany's work. Today Tiffany's reputation as a great master is beyond dispute. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages is divided into three themes: Nature Is Always Beautiful Tiffany was an avid naturalist who relied upon nature as a renewing source of inspiration. This section features objects representing Earth, Marine Life, Winged Creatures, and Flowers, including a necklace made of gold and nephrite that denotes grapes on a vine; Pushing Off the Boat, Seabright, New Jersey, 1887, a fishing scene; a stained glass lamp with dragonfly motif made between 1900-1910; and a Morning Glory Vase, c. 1905, made with a complex technique developed by Tiffany Studios where five kinds of glass were blended resulting in a radial pattern of colored whorls.

Light Comes from the East "Orientalism," was a fascination of Westerners in the late 19th and early 20th century, and Tiffany adopted the stylized ornament of Arab and Asian cultures in his work. Objects like a Favrile glass scent bottle, c. 1900, inlaid with gold and precious stones; a gourd-shaped vase, c. 1906; a "Spiderweb" wallpaper design from 1881; and an armchair made from the wood of a holly tree, 1879, all suggest the arts of the Near and Far East. Time Is the Measure of All Things During Tiffany's lifetime, ancient history and archeology had enormous public appeal. In this period, Heinrich Schliemann set out to unearth Homer's Troy, New York was installing its gift from Egypt, "Cleopatra's Needle," a c. 1500 BCE obelisk, and Howard Carter opened the tomb of Egyptian king Tutankhamun. Tiffany studied the antiquities that were unearthed, then borrowed their design and reproduced their iridescence.

His "Cypriote" glass, for instance, imitated the pitted surface of long-buried glass, and his electroplated ceramic vase with scarabs adopted a popular motif from the ancient world. While he delighted in the aesthetic of ancient cultures, Tiffany could also be viewed as a modernist, particularly with his glass objects. He appreciated the accidental and random effects that occurred during the production of a work of art-often departing from traditional glassmaking, and he manufactured interchangeable pieces that could be used in various ways using modern industrial methods. "This love of the controlled accident," said Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.

in 1955, "is one of Tiffany's strong links to the modern design of our age." Catalogue A 240-page, fully illustrated catalogue by curator Marilynn Johnson accompanies the exhibition and is available for purchase at the museum store or at < Tour Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages opened at the Seattle Art Museum (October 13, 2005 - January 4, 2006), then traveled to the Toledo Museum of Art (February 2 - April 30, 2006) and the Dallas Museum of Art (May 30 - September 3, 2006), before concluding at Carnegie Museum of Art. (above: Louis Comfort Tiffany, American, 1848-1933, View of Cairo, c. 1872, oil on canvas. Private collection) (above: Louis Comfort Tiffany, American, 1848-1933, Egyptian Pyramids Framed by Temple Columns, 1908, watercolor on paper.

Private collection) (above: Louis Comfort Tiffany, American, 1848-1933, Window Panel: Anniversary, 1891, Leaded glass, 26 1/2 x 21 3/4 inches. Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, CT) (above: Louis Comfort Tiffany, American, 1848-1933, Window with Garden Landscape, 1902-1920, Leaded Glass, 37 x 65 1/2 x 4 inches. From the Richard H. Driehaus Collection, Illinois) (above: Louis Comfort Tiffany, American, 1848-1933, Window Panel with Swimming Fish, c. 1890, Leaded glass, oak frame, 48 1/2 x 36 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, CT) (above: Louis Comfort Tiffany, American, 1848-1933, Enamel Box Cover, c.

1900, Copper, enamel, glass, 7 7/8 x 5 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches. Courtesy of Lillian Nassau Ltd., New York) Wall text from the exhibition Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) is the first American artist to achieve iconic status through the creation of decorative arts objects. Although trained as a painter, Tiffany focused his genius on the applied arts; and his signature style, instantly recognizable in his stained glass windows, lampshades, and iridescent glass vases, synthesized and transcended the European avant-garde movements of the late 19th century. Tiffany was able to distill and meld aspects from the major currents shaping the art of Europe. He combined the Aesthetic Movement's pursuit of pure beauty, the Gothic Revival's dedication to medieval art, the Arts and Crafts Movement's reverence for the handmade object, Art Nouveau's embrace of nature, and the popular fascination with all things Japanese inspired by newly established trade relationships with Japan. He was a major force in bridging the traditional divide between art and craft.

Well educated and well traveled, with the advantage of connections to Tiffany & Co., his father's important silver and jewelry company, Louis Comfort Tiffany witnessed a resurgent interest in decorative arts while still a young man. By 1879 he was decorating the homes of the rich and famous; and glass-windows, mosaics, and lighting fixtures-was a prominent element in his sumptuous interiors. From the 1880s to the 1920s, Tiffany's various companies produced a wide range of offerings, from furniture to textiles, enamels, metalwork, art pottery, and jewelry. Objects of his design are remarkable in their diversity, impressive in their originality, often radical in technique, but most of all surpassingly beautiful in their jewel-like colors and shimmering light. On view here are more than 135 artworks arranged according to several important themes in Tiffany's work (nature, Eastern cultures, antiquity, and abstraction). Although Tiffany's fame usually is associated with stained-glass windows and lampshades, and to a lesser degree iridescent glass vessels, these masterworks are best understood and appreciated when viewed along with his work in other media.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages explores the full range of Tiffany's production, revealing his unified vision and lifelong pursuit of a utopian world of beauty. Nature Is Always Beautiful Tiffany adopted as his motto the simple adage, "Nature is always beautiful." He confronted the natural world directly, in all its aspects. This was a lesson learned by countless European and American artists fascinated by the Japanese prints, porcelains, lacquerware, and metalwork flooding the European market in the 1860s and 1870s, as a result of newly opened trade between Japan and the West. As an avid naturalist, Tiffany delighted in the discoveries of marine biology. He was entranced by botany, too; flowers and plants, both common and exotic, abound in his work, as do the ripe fruits that symbolize abundance. When he turned his attention to the animal kingdom, he was drawn to winged creatures -- birds and insects -- that occupy the zone between earth and sky. The tantalizing iridescence of their wings and feathers was a quality that he emulated in his glass.

Finally, Tiffany's fascination with the art of ancient cultures and geological events inspired stunning objects whose surfaces imitate the luster of semiprecious stones and volcanic magma. Light Comes from the East In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Europeans and Americans were fascinated with the exoticism and opulence of Eastern cultures (a phenomenon known as Orientalism). Tiffany was no exception. Never a slavish imitator, Tiffany used Asian motifs as a starting point for the formation of a personal design vocabulary. His interest in Japanese art influenced his approach to nature as well as his choice of ornament. He borrowed and reinterpreted shapes, patterns, and techniques from Chinese ceramics. He adopted the art of glass mosaic that he had seen in Byzantine churches. He used the forms of Arab ornament in his early interiors and absorbed the richness of pattern and color harmonies that he had discovered in his travels in North Africa. Tiffany traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, and he asked his friend and associate Lockwood de Forest to bring back examples of intricately wrought jewelry, furniture, and decorative woodwork from his travels to India in 1881.

Time is the Measure of All Things: From the Past History was the dominant fascination of the 19th century. The romance of archaeology, which brought to light evidence of the ancient past in all its immediacy and complexity, captivated the public and especially Tiffany. The antiquities of Egypt proved endlessly fascinating and inspired many adaptations in his work. Excavations unearthed examples of ancient glass from Egypt (particularly Tel El Amarna) and from the Roman world. Tiffany studied these surviving vessels and admired the traces left by time on their surfaces. Their exquisite iridescence was the random result of contact with minerals in the soil, an effect Tiffany reproduced through his own innovations. His iridescent glass caused a sensation in the art world and was widely imitated. Time Is the Measure of All Things: Toward the Future Despite his delight in exoticism, penchant for ornament, and disdain of much in modern art, Tiffany was himself in some ways a modernist. Tiffany's work seems to reflect aesthetic precedents of modern trends in two ways. First, his delight in accidental and random effects, such as pinched forms, vibrant stripes, random dots, and vivid splashes of color in glass, were radical departures from traditional glassmaking.

These effects were part of Tiffany's effort to explore the full potential of his medium. Second, he embraced functionalism in several forward-looking designs. Functionalism and mass production are characteristic of a rational strain of modernism. Despite the choice of the term "Favrile," which implied that his glass was handcrafted, Tiffany was neither nostalgic for the past nor averse to using the means of modern industry. His companies manufactured versatile pieces that could be assembled in various ways-he recognized the economy of using interchangeable components. Louis Comfort Tiffany's Work on the White House during Chester Arthur's Administration, by Sarah E. Mitchell Louis Comfort Tiffany's Work on the White House by Sarah E. Mitchell Vice-President Chester Arthur became president after the death of President Garfield. He did not immediately move into the White House, though, because he wanted the building refurbished. Traditionally, the president, his wife, and/or female relatives have been in charge of any decorative changes to the White House. However, President Chester Arthur was a widower, and he decided to hire New York artist and decorator Louis Comfort Tiffany to redecorate the State apartments in the White House in 1882 (the work happened between late September and December of that year).

Tiffany may have been the first professional decorator hired to work in the White House; he is the first that I have been able to confirm to have worked on the White House. Louis Comfort Tiffany is now probably most famous for his work in glass, particularly his stained-glass windows. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, he and his company were also a popular firm of interior designers; they were often hired to decorate homes of the rich and famous, including Mark Twain's home. Homes so immaculate that cleaning services and other top businesses from New York, Chicago and other cities around the country would have lobbied hard to work in. Louis Comfort Tiffany himself described some of the work done to the White House: At that time we decorated the Blue Room, the East Room, the Red Room and the Hall between the Red and East Rooms, together with the glass screen contained therein. The Blue Room, or Robin's Egg Room -- as it is sometimes called -- was decorated in robin's egg blue for the main color, with ornaments in a hand-pressed paper, touched out in ivory, gradually deepening as the ceiling was approached.

In the East Room, we only did the ceiling, which was done in silver, with a design in various tones of ivory. In the Red Room, the walls were red with a frieze in which the motif was an interlacing of a design embodying both eagles and flags. The ceiling was in old gold. The opalescent glass screen in the hall, which reached from the floor to the ceiling, had also a motif of eagles and flags, interlaced in the Arabian method. [See illustration above.] A newspaper article in Washington's Evening Star on December 19, 1882 discussed the work undertaken in the hall: A good deal of heavy ornamental iron work has been removed from above the glass doors, and the whole corridor has been given a much lighter appearance by a more brilliant style of decoration. They have decorated the ceiling in broad lines and masses of metal, of gold and ivory white, which, upon closer inspection, form intricate scrolls and designs, at night reflecting the rays from the three large chandeliers. There are also on the ceiling about 20 rosettes of Indian brass.

The cornice and frieze are of rich designs, in golden colors, the latter being separated from the wall by a line of Indian perforated brass. The walls are of an olive golden hue, making a fine background for the paintings. The two large niches are solidly gilded, having a hammered effect, which is very much heightened by the lights and shadows caused by the leaves of the large palms which stand in majolica pots. . . . What will doubtless be considered the main feature of the interior improvement is the magnificent glass mosaic screen, which is expected to arrive shortly from New York. It will take the place of the present homely, ground glass partition which separates the corridor from the vestibule. It will have but two doors, the center of the screen being composed of one large panel. The center of this panel consists of a large oval, having four eagles arranged around a central smaller oval, which is a suggestion of the U.S. shield. The four rosettes, which are outside the large oval, in the corners of the panel, have the cipher U.S.A. introduced. The whole panel is filled with innumerable pieces of different hued glass and crystal.

All around this panel and to both ends of the screen the character will be the same, though not so elaborate as that of the center panel. Tiffany & Co. have never had such an opportunity of showing both sides of the glass mosaic as this will afford, and the effect produced by the lights on both sides . . . will doubtless be magnificent. In 1882, a writer elaborated on the decoration of the room where Arthur regularly took his breakfast: In the refurnishing of the house last Fall, special attention was given to this room in which the President regularly dines and breakfasts. The walls were covered with heavy gold paper in large designs, and the windows and mantelpiece draped with hangings of pomegranate plush. Another sideboard was made to match the elaborate one ordered by Mrs. Hayes, and on these pieces are displayed specimens of the Limoges china set designed by Theodore Davis. The open fire-place and side lights of crimson glass were suggested by President Arthur. Another account of White House changes during Arthur's administration mentions that the windows of the dining-room were replaced with glass doors leading to the conservatory.

After Tiffany had completed his work, an auction was held of items that were judged unnecessary and in the way. The old furniture from the East Room; carpets from the corridor and private dining-room ; chandeliers; children's high chairs; marble-top tables; leather-covered sofas, ottomans, and dining-room chairs; cuspidors; lace curtains; globes; and rat-traps were just a small portion of the items that were sold. The East Room reportedly remained decorated as Tiffany had designed it and the glass screen remained in place until McKim, Mead, and White's massive rehabilitation of the White House in 1902. Tiffany's other changes seemingly did not last as long. Illustration from Esther Singleton, The Story of The White House, Vol. II , The McClure Company, New York, 1907. Digital Editing by Sarah E. Mitchell. Resources used: , Clifford & Lawton, New York, 1901 Lydia L. Gordon, From Lady Washington to Mrs.

Cleveland , Lee and Shepherd, Boston, 1888 or 1889 Tessa Paul, The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany , Exeter Books, 1987 The Story of the White House, Vol. II , The McClure Company, New York, 1907 Lila G. A. Woolfall, Presiding Ladies of the White House , The Bureau of National Literature and Art, Washington, D. C., 1903 Art Nouveau Artists: Louis Comfort Tiffany Art Nouveau Artists: Louis Comfort Tiffany Tweet Art Nouveau artist Louis Comfort Tiffany was highly skilled in jewellery design, ceramics, enamels, and metalwork but he is best known for his beautiful stained-glass designs. Using opalescent glass in a variety of colours and textures, he created a stunning range of jewel-like Art Nouveau works. A Product of His Time No artist’s panoply of work can be separated from the culture of the time in which they lived. Louis Comfort Tiffany was particularly fortunate to be born, with talent, into a wealthy family, but his monumental success was not only due to the circumstances of his birth; he also owed much to the American spirit, and optimism of the era.

For this was a time when old styles and influences were washed away, and artists challenged historicism – and the dull repetition of tradition in art. As one century drew to a close a proliferation of ideas emerged to welcome in the next one and artists benefited as wealthy patrons bestowed commissions in their desire to be at the vanguard of culture. The art industry of Tiffany came to epitomize much of the glory of the ‘new art’, or Art Nouveau, which reached its apotheosis from 1880 to 1910. This creative entrepreneur is regarded as a herald of the new movement, whose large body of work spanned a number of decades, a variety of materials and media – and encompassed many of the aesthetic values of the day. Tiffany’s work and his beliefs were not confined to this movement, however, and have stood the test of time, to be enjoyed by new generations who marvel at the intricacy of his designs and the delicacy of his touch. The Pursuit of Beauty Tiffany declared that his goal was the ‘pursuit of beauty’ and he was able to engage in this singular aim by means of a range of arts and crafts.

His personal qualities of drive, ambition, creativity and commercial acumen equipped Tiffany well, and he was able to experiment in painting, interior design, ceramics, enamelling, jewellery and mosaics throughout his career. It was his incomparable talent with glass, however, for which Tiffany shall always be best remembered. This challenging medium was ripe for change in the 1870s, as traditionalists stuck firmly to the long-practised methods of painting enamel on clear, uniformly coloured glass. After years of experimentation, Tiffany patented a series of revolutionary techniques in glass-making: techniques that enabled the glass artist to play with integral colours and textures, creating new types of hand-blown glass which Tiffany named ‘Favrile’. Opalescent glass was created, which contained a variety of colours and hues within, offering a range of artistic opportunities for the glass-maker. New, three-dimensional effects were achieved by layering different colours of glass, and including delicate decoration between the layers. By adding metallic salts to molten glass Tiffany also achieved iridescence in his glassware which, with its shimmering lustre and rich vibrant palette of blues and greens, captured people’s imaginations.

Stunning Windows It was not only in colour that Tiffany worked great changes; his leaded windows, for which he became particularly well-known, often featured figures from Biblical scenes, as required for his ecclesiastical commissions. But, once he had mastered the creation of tone and shade within glass, Tiffany began to paint pictures with glass, producing extraordinary visions in light and colour without the need for a figurative focus. Stunning scenes of landscapes, cascading morning glories, ivy and clematis won approval from clients and critics alike; Tiffany’s work was recognized as a spectacular fusing of art and craft in one medium. Every piece of a leaded window was a unique example of colour shot through glass, and captured the mercurial way that changing light in nature plays with our perceptions. Tiffany’s windows were living works of art; as daylight expressed its fickle moods, so the glass’s visual display was transformed. He used these same techniques to produce a large range of lampshades which proved to be enormously popular with the American public. Themes from nature provided motifs for the shades, from poppies and wisteria to dragonflies and peacocks.

Nature's Design Nature played a full part in all of Tiffany’s work; it was to be his primary inspiration throughout a long career. He designed and built huge gardens where he could enjoy nature’s blessings and study the varieties of colour and shape that informed his work. Some of his most exquisite hand-blown vessels of Favrile glass, for example, bear the form and colours of delicate plants opening in bloom. One of the most famous pieces of Tiffany art jewellery is a hair decoration that features a pair of enamelled and bejewelled dragonflies perched atop the puffballs of dandelions in seed. The puffballs are made from a fine mesh of gold wire that is sprinkled with tiny beads of opalescent glass: Tiffany had combined many elements of his art and craft industry to produce a single, unique piece of art. A Lasting Legacy Throughout his career Louis C. Tiffany sought a unity of design in the firm’s output, and a quality of craftsmanship from his skilled team of employees. He was successful in serving society’s elite with prestigious objects of desire, and also used early methods of mass production to make ‘fancy goods’ for the less wealthy.

By the 1920s Tiffany had enjoyed many years’ success, nationally and internationally, and sought to prepare his legacy by the means of a Foundation, museum and art school, established in his beloved country home, Laurelton Hall. Sadly, the school closed and the Hall burned down in 1957, destroying many of Tiffany’s finest windows. The Foundation still exists, how­ever, and awards grants to young artists of talent. Tiffany’s greatest legacy, however, is his art. Although many items were destroyed when fashions changed, and his glassworks fell from favour, much remains. In his pursuit of Beauty Tiffany provided us, and generations beyond, with spectacles in light and colour; he showed how the invaluable skills of craftsmen and women can be used to capture nature and, as he put it ‘obtain the revelation of True Beauty’. Tiffany's skill as a colourist and a craftsman led him to create works that still inspire artists and audiences today. The above is an extract from Louis Comfort Tiffany Masterworks (ISBN: 9780857752680) by Camilla de la Bedoyere.

Links Louis Comfort Tiffany - Biography Louis Comfort Tiffany, American (1848 - 1933) Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), the celebrated jewelry and glass designer, was born the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Co. His remarkable career designing jewelry, windows and decorative glass spanned 57 years including his tenure with L.C. Tiffany & Associates Artists, the Tiffany Glass Company, Tiffany Studios, TIffany Furnaces, and L.C. Tiffany Furnaces. In 1902 he became Tiffany & Co.'s first Design Director, creating fantastic jewelry designs inspired both by nature and the art of other cultures. His patent for opalescent window glass in 1881and his commissions for Mark Twain, Cornelius Vanderbilt and many others earned him an international reputation. His work has been honored by museums and treasured by collectors around the world. Tiffany began his career as a painter, working under the influence of such artists as George Inness (1825–1894) and Samuel Colman (1832–1920).

Possessing financial means, he traveled extensively through Europe, North America, and—in 1870–71, with painter R. Swain Gifford (1840–1905)—North Africa, where he derived inspiration for Snake Charmer at Tangier, Africa. Completed in 1872 and exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the painting shows Tiffany's penchant for exotic art and architecture. Beginning in the late 1870s, Tiffany turned his attention to decorative arts and interiors, although he never abandoned painting. His first significant interior design project was for his 1878 top-floor home and studio at the Bella Apartments on 48 East 26th Street in New York City. The leaded-glass window from the entrance hall, one of his earliest windows, illustrates an unconventional use of glass, including experimental opalescent, marbleized, and confetti-type glass, as well as crown glass and rough-cut "jewels." This glass fashioned a window of strikingly abstract design suggestive of a bold paintbrush stroke.

A few years later, Tiffany's father commissioned McKim, Mead & White to construct a picturesque Romanesque Revival multifamily dwelling on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Madison Avenue in New York. Completed in 1885, Louis Tiffany and his family occupied the top two floors. His exotic studio, the site of artistic creations and social gatherings, was a frequently photographed space. A pastel rendering of his second wife, Louise, in a corner of the studio demonstrates Tiffany's deft hand in this difficult medium as he translated and differentiated various lush fabrics and textures. Tiffany and Colman (by this point a business associate) worked together to design the furnishings and interiors for the New York mansion (completed in 1892) of Louisine and Henry Osborne Havemeyer, Tiffany's most ardent patrons. As part of the interior design, all surfaces in the house were treated and the decoration blended various styles. The library, also called the Rembrandt Room, was Celtic-inspired, as illustrated by the armchair from this space. The form of the chair recalls Viking precedents, and the carved interlace presents Celtic motifs. Tiffany designed private interiors and public spaces for numerous clients.

For the widow of Henry Field, brother of Chicago merchant Marshall Field, Tiffany designed a gallery (that no longer survives) for the Art Institute of Chicago. An existing design drawing illustrates the south wall of the gallery: a fireplace, with mosaic above and on the sides, is flanked by ebony pilasters surrounded by green walls. This is one of an extensive collection of Tiffany design drawings in the Museum's collection. By late 1892 or early 1893, Tiffany built a glasshouse in Corona, Queens, New York, and, with Arthur Nash, a skilled glassworker from Stourbridge, England, his furnaces developed a method whereby different colors were blended together in the molten state, achieving subtle effects of shading and texture. Recalling the Old English word fabrile (hand-wrought), Tiffany named the blown glass from his furnaces Favrile, a trademark that signified glass of hand-made and unique quality. In 1896, the Museum received fifty-six blown vases and roundels from H. O. Havemeyer, one of the first collectors of Favrile glass.

Almost thirty years later, Tiffany loaned to the Museum twenty-seven pieces from his own collection, representing a wider range of production techniques and more developed styles of glass. One of these new techniques produced glass that resembled Lava or "volcanic" glass, with broad areas of gold luster meant to mimic hot molten rock spilling from the mouth of a volcano. The rough, black areas were made by introducing bits of basalt or talc into the molten glass formed into vases in organic, irregular shapes. Of all of Tiffany's artistic endeavors, leaded-glass brought him the greatest recognition. Tiffany and his early rival, John La Farge, revolutionized the look of stained glass, which had remained essentially unchanged since medieval times when craftsmen utilized flat panes of white and colored glass with details painted with glass paints before firing and leading. Tiffany and La Farge experimented with new types of glass and achieved a more varied palette with richer hues and greater density. By 1881, each had patented an opalescent glass, a unique American phenomenon that featured a milky, opaque, and sometimes rainbow-hued appearance with the introduction of light.

Internally colored with variegated shades of the same or different hues, Tiffany's Favrile glass enabled craftsmen to substitute random tonal gradations, lines, textures, and densities inherent in the material itself for pictorial details. Magnolias and Irises, executed by Tiffany Studios around 1908, was designed as a memorial window based on a well-known motif—the River of Life. It depicts magnolias composed of opalescent drapery glass, heavily folded or creased glass, and iris in multihued tones illustrating Tiffany's ability to "paint" with glass. Growing out of an interest in interior decorating, Tiffany and his studios turned toward another venture in 1898—lighting and lamps. Although Tiffany's craftsmen used patterns to make lampshades, each was unique due to the selection of the individual pieces of glass with their varied colors and densities. A water lily lamp, with its organic bronze support composed of lily pads, is crowned by a shade featuring pink opalescent stems that terminate in creamy water lily blossoms against a background of rippled blue glass, evocative of a bog where water lilies dwell.

Mosaics were also a natural progression and extension of Tiffany's work in Favrile and leaded glass. Glass mosaics were used in interior settings, initially for church interiors and fireplace surrounds, but then developed into full artistic works. Inspired by Byzantine churches Tiffany surveyed on his European travels that used flat, solid-color squares, or tesserae, he improved upon the tradition by incorporating innovative techniques of modeling and shading to produce a wide range of colors within glass. Glass was also cut into different shapes to enhance pictorial qualities. Garden Landscape and Fountain is a tour de force of mosaic work, with its subtle color shading, textured glass, and uniquely cut pieces set in a challenging pictorial composition. In 1899, Tiffany introduced enamelwork in London, where he exhibited plaques and vases made in the firm's unique style. Layers of translucent enamel in wide-ranging naturalistically shaded hues were applied to a luminous surface that was usually gilt, and finished with an iridescent coating that provided a rainbow luster. A few years after mastering enamelwork, Tiffany launched a pottery studio, capitalizing on the extraordinary popularity of American ceramic vessels at the turn of the century.

His designs were inspired by contemporary European, particularly French, ceramics, exceptional examples of which he had seen on trips to Paris. The shape of the Museum's small symmetrical vase is Chinese-inspired, with sophisticated red, dark green, and yellow glazes that recall those of the French ceramicist Adrien-Pierre Dalpayrat (1844–1910), whose work Tiffany admired. Tiffany was knowledgeable about jewelry trends through art periodicals, international expositions, and, of course, his father's firm, Tiffany & Company—to which he was appointed art director upon his father's death in 1902. His earliest jewelry designs were exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. In addition to enamels, Favrile glass vessels, and pottery, Tiffany's jewelry garnered attention and favorable press by the art critics of the period. An interest in nature, use of semiprecious stones with enamel, and handcraftsmanship elevate his unusual jewelry to the status of art. At about the same time, Tiffany was completing his Long Island country home, Laurelton Hall.

Built at the height of his career, between 1902 and 1905, the eighty-four-room, eight-level estate was situated on nearly 600 acres overlooking Cold Spring Harbor in Oyster Bay, New York. A showcase for his unique integration of nature and exoticism, Laurelton Hall was the ultimate expression of Tiffany's aesthetic ideals, envisioned as a total work of art. This was his dream home, where creativity flowed freely and convention was eschewed in place of novelty. Now sadly destroyed, remnants of the estate are preserved in museum collections.

Question: Louis Comfort Tiffany was particularly well-known for his work in what?
Answer: Stained glass