Louis Comfort Tiffany
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Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) circa 1908 |
Louis Comfort Tiffany (
February 18,
1848 -
January 17,
1933) was an American artist and designer who is best known for his work in
stained glass and is the American artist most associated with the
Art Nouveau movement. Tiffany was a painter and interior decorator and designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork.
Louis was the son of
Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of
Tiffany and Company; and Harriet Olivia Avery Young. Louis married Mary Woodbridge Goddard (c1850-1884) on May 15, 1872 in
Norwich, Connecticut and had the following children: Mary Woodbridge Tiffany (1873-1963) who married Graham Lusk; Charles Louis Tiffany I (1874-1874); Charles Louis Tiffany II (1878-1947); and Hilda Goddard Tiffany (1879-1908). After the death of his wife, he married Louise Wakeman Knox (1851-1904) on November 9, 1886. They had the following children: Louis Comfort Tiffany II (1887-1974); Julia DeForest (1887-1973); Annie Olivia Tiffany (1888-1892); and Dorothy Trimble Tiffany (1891-1979).
He went to school at the
Eagleswood Military Academy in
Perth Amboy, New Jersey. His first artistic training was as a painter, studying under
George Inness and
Samuel Coleman in
New York City, and
Léon Bailly in
Paris.
From about 1875 to 1878, when he became interested in
glassmaking and worked several at glasshouses in Brooklyn. In 1879 he joined with
Samuel Colman and
Lockwood de Forest to form
'Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated American Artists. Tiffany's leadership and talent, as well as by his father's money and connections, led this business to thrive.
A desire to concentrate on art in glass led to the breakup of the firm in
1885, when Tiffany chose to establish his own glassmaking firm later that same year. The first Tiffany Glass Company was incorporated on December 1, 1885, which in
1900 became known as the Tiffany Studios.
Tiffany used opalescent glass in a variety of colors and textures to create a unique style of stained glass. This can be contrasted with the method of painting in glass paint or enamels on colorless glass that had been the dominant method of creating stained glass for several hundred years in Europe. Use of the colored glass itself to create stained glass pictures was motivated by the ideals of the
Arts and Crafts movement and its leader
William Morris in
England. Fellow artist and glassmaker
John La Farge was Tiffany's chief competitor in this new American style of stained glass. Both La Farge and Tiffany had learned their craft at the same glasshouses in Brooklyn in the late 1870's.
In
1893 Tiffany built a new factory, called the Tiffany Glass Furnaces, which was located in Corona,
Queens, New York. In
1893 his company also introduced the term,
Favrile in conjunction with his first production of blown glass at his new glass factory. Some early examples of his lamps were exhibited in the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
He trademarked
Favrile (from the old French word for handmade) on November 13, 1894. He later used this word to apply to all of his glass, enamel and pottery. Tiffany's first commercially produced lamps date from around 1895. Much of his company's production was in making stained glass windows and
Tiffany lamps, but his company designed a complete range of interior decorations. At its peak, his factory employed more than 300 artisans.
He used all his skills in the design of his own house, the 84-room Laurelton Hall, in
Oyster Bay,
Long Island, completed in
1904. Later this estate was donated to his foundation for art students along with 60 acres (243,000 m²) of land, but destroyed by a fire in
1957.
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park (Orlando), Florida, houses the world's most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany including Tiffany jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass, leaded-glass windows, lamps, and the incredible chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Put into storage after the Exposition closed, the chapel is so large it occupies an entire wing of the museum. Many glass panels from Laurelton Hall are also there; for many years they were on display in a local restaurant. These were replaced by full scale color transparencies after the museum opened.
Tiffany maintained close ties with the family firm. The Tiffany Company sold many products produced by the studios. He became Artistic Director of Tiffany & Co. after his father's death in 1902. The Tiffany Studios remained in business until 1928.
He died on
January 17,
1933, and was buried in
Greenwood Cementery in
Brooklyn, New York.
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Society of American Artists in
1877*
National Academy of Design in
1880*
American Water Color Society*
Societé des Beaux Arts*Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour in
1900Image:tifftree.JPG|The tree of life stained glassImage:Tiffany_Window_of_St_Augustine_-_Lightner_Museum.jpg|Window of St. Augustine, in the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida.Image:1620786_86af108314_o.jpg|Stained glass dome Ceiling at the Chicago Cultural Center*
Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum Station - The railway station of the longest name in Japan.
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Louis Comfort Tiffany, The artistic spirit of the Gilded Age.* [http://www.morsemuseum.org/home.htm Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, Florida
*
Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum (Japanese)
