Louis Comfort Tiffany
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Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in
stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
. He is associated with the
art nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
Lander, David
"The Buyable Past: Quezal Glass"
'' American Heritage'' (April/May 2006)
and
aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...
art movements. He was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists, which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels, and metalwork. He was the first design director at his family company, Tiffany & Co., founded by his father Charles Lewis Tiffany.


Early life and education

Tiffany was born in
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, the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Company, and Harriet Olivia Avery Young. He attended school at Pennsylvania Military Academy in
Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (also known as the Delaware Valley) on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. ...
, and Eagleswood Military Academy in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.


Early career

Tiffany's first artistic training was as a painter, studying under George Inness in Eagleswood, New Jersey, and Samuel Colman in Irvington, New York. He also studied at the National Academy of Design in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in 1866 and 1867 and with salon painter Leon-Adolphe-Auguste Belly in 1868 and 1869. Belly's landscape paintings had a great influence on Tiffany. Although Tiffany started out as a painter, he became interested in glassmaking from about 1875 and worked at several glasshouses in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
until 1878. In 1879 he joined with Candace Wheeler, Samuel Colman, and Lockwood de Forest to form ''Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated American Artists''. The business lasted only four years. The group made designs for wallpaper, furniture, and textiles. In 1881, Tiffany did the interior design of the Mark Twain House in
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, which still remains.


History of Tiffany Studios

After Tiffany had formed a partnership with Colman, Lockwood DeForest, and Candace Wheeler, and after having incorporated the interior decorating firm of L.C. Tiffany & Associated Artists, a desire to concentrate on art in glass led Tiffany to choose to establish his own glassmaking firm. The first Tiffany Glass Company was incorporated on December 1, 1885. It became the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company in 1892, and the Tiffany Studios in 1900. He had used commercial glass houses for 19 years to supply his Manhattan showroom and clients, but wanted to be fully in charge of production and design security. Finally, in 1892 he founded his own glassworks, the Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces in Corona Queens. As a youth Tiffany had attended the Flushing Institute, on Roosevelt Avenue between Main and Union Streets, where Macy's department store now sits. Tiffany was keenly aware of the area's potential and for his furnaces to succeed, he needed to hire the town's pool of experienced immigrant workers, who were then mostly Italian, German, and Irish." Tiffany experimented with glass. Sand for glassmaking was abundantly available at nearby Oyster Bay. Tiffany would eventually oversee two hundred artisans. Among them, Clara Driscoll, whose dragonfly lamp won a prize in the 1900 Paris Exposition, was by 1904 one of the highest paid women in the world. Even some of Tiffany's artists were foreigners, such as Venetian-born Andrea Boldini, and both Englishmen Joseph Briggs and Arthur J. Nash. With Tiffany later opening his own glass factory in
Corona, New York Corona is a neighborhood in the Borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City. It borders Flushing, Queens, Flushing and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the east, Jackson Heights, Queens, Jackson Heights to the west, Forest Hill ...
, he was determined to provide designs that improved the quality of contemporary glass. The factory was the old Tiffany Studios in Corona, Queens, at the southwest corner of 43rd Avenue and 97th place, where it was used to cast art sculptures of bronze designs for sculptors, and bronze architectural elements such as floor registers, door jambs, window casings, lamps, and sconces, most notably for Tiffany. The building had undergone a metamorphosis of name changes, beginning with the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, in 1892. In 1893, Tiffany built a new factory called the Stourbridge Glass Company, later called Tiffany Glass Furnaces, which was located in Corona, Queens, hiring the Englishman Arthur J. Nash to oversee it. 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
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. At the beginning of his career, Tiffany used cheap jelly jars and bottles because they had the mineral impurities that finer glass lacked. When he was unable to convince fine glassmakers to leave the impurities in, he began making his own glass. Tiffany used opalescent glass in a variety of colors and textures to create a unique style of stained glass. Tiffany acquired Stanford Bray's patent for the "copper foil" technique, which, by edging each piece of cut glass in copper foil and soldering the whole together to create his windows and lamps, made possible a level of detail previously unknown. This can be contrasted with the method of painting in enamels or glass paint on colorless glass, and then setting the glass pieces in lead channels, which had been the dominant method of creating stained glass for hundreds of years in Europe. Tiffany 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 favrile glass vases were based on Venetian glassmaking techniques mixed with
ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
and
Near Eastern The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
inspirations." Tiffany delved into glass-making with interest in Venetian glass-maker Antonio Salviati. Tiffany would study techniques from Salviati-trained glassmaker, Andrea Boldini. In 1902, Tiffany had been influenced by a '' Cypriote'' line of jewelry that his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, had introduced earlier at the Turin World's Fair. He coined this particular line of favrile glass the ''Cypriote'' line. 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. "Within this complex, Tiffany carried out experiments in glass colors and pottery glazing, perfected techniques of assembling stained glass windows." “By 1901, Tiffany was at the peak of his profession. "At his father's death in 1902, came into an inheritance equivalent today to more than $20 million. At age fifty-four, he was appointed the first design director and vice president of Tiffany & Co., taking on leading roles in the famous jewelry firm as well as continuing in his own enterprises. Also in 1902 Tiffany formally adopted the trademark Tiffany Studios for all works made in Corona, though the imprint had apparently been used earlier."


Tiffany Artisans

By 1902, Louis C. Tiffany had "several highly-gifted assistants working under his direction: Arthur J. Nash in glass; Clara Driscoll in leaded-glass lamps, windows, and mosaic design; Frederick Wilson in ecclesiastical stained-glass windows; and Julia Halsey Munson in enamels and jewelry design.


Arthur J. Nash

Arthur J. Nash had been manager of a major glassworks in
Stourbridge Stourbridge () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour, the town lies around west of Birmingham, at the southwester ...
,
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,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. Tiffany persuaded Nash to join him in founding and heading a new firm, first called the Stourbridge Glass Company, and later in 1902 became known as the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company in Corona, Queens. Arthur J. Nash became Tiffany's partner, as Nash applied the favrile the glass technique learned from his hometown of Stourbridge, England to the glassworks produced by Tiffany. Thereafter, its name evolved from being called the Stourbridge Glass Company in 1893 (in deference to the technique learned from Nash's hometown), to the Tiffany Glass Furnaces, and finally to the Tiffany Studios. "Nash hired many more skilled English artisans. Tiffany's vision, Nash's management, and Charles Lewis Tiffany's financing resulted in a thriving operation. Stourbridge Glass Company was absorbed by Tiffany into the Tiffany Furnaces in 1902. "In 1920, Tiffany's glass production was reorganized under Nash's son, A. Douglas Nash, as part of Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc.; and, as in the case of the metal shop under Arthur Nash's other son, Leslie Nash, the production turned to more commercial table and other wares." In 1922, Leslie Nash, a creative artist and designer in his own right, had a major influence on Tiffany's production. "In 1922, in the waning period of Tiffany Furnaces, Tiffany and Leslie Nash—inspired by motifs from King Tutankhamen's recently discovered tomb—designed an elaborate special order," for the wife of
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millionaire Cyrus McCormick. Tiffany sold his interests to the Nashes in 1928. Arthur Nash retired after 1918, and "with him retired the secrets of making the finest and most technically complicated types of Tiffany glass, which remain to this day one of the crowning achievements of the decorative arts in America."


Clara Driscoll

"A gifted unsung artist," Clara Driscoll was one of the many gifted artists employed by Tiffany. Driscoll was born in Tallmadge, Ohio. Driscoll was educated at the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, and in 1888 moved to New York City to study at the Metropolitan Museum of Art School. "The turning point in her career came when she and her sister found employment at the Tiffany Glass Company in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
." When Driscoll first began work at Tiffany's the firm was located at 333-35 Fourth Avenue, later renamed for its lush-green central median,
Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...
. The names of the firm underwent a metamorphosis of name changes, as had Tiffany's glass operation with Nash: Louis C. Tiffany and Associated Artists, to Louis C. Tiffany & Co., and finally the Tiffany Glass Company. "As the name suggests, the company focused largely on leaded-glass windows but it also received commissions for interior decoration." From the late 1880s until about 1909, Driscoll supervised many of Tiffany's most celebrated leaded windows and mosaics. Since the common practice at the time was to limit female hires to unmarried status, Driscoll worked on and off on three separate occasions. During Driscoll's first term in 1892, a "Women's Glass Cutting Department" with six female employees under Driscoll's direction was created, and in two years, this had increased to thirty-five. Her third term at Tiffany's, "undoubtedly the most creative" tenure of her career, was the period many refer to as "the most prestigious commissions for leaded-glass windows and mosaics by her "Tiffany Girls." It was during this tenure that iconic pieces like the ''Dragonfly'', ''Wisteria'', and ''Poppy'' lamp shades were created. Undoubtedly, the magic in the artistic endeavors by Tiffany and his artisans can only be ascribed to the "harmony that existed between Tiffany and his workers."


Frederick Wilson

Frederick Wilson started at Tiffany Studios in 1893, became its chief window designer in 1897, and head of the Ecclesiastical Department in 1899. He was among the most prominent and prolific designers: ''e.g.'', ''The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory'' (1901); '' Angel of the Resurrection'' (1904); ''The Prayer of the Christian Soldier'' (1919). He worked in his studio at Briarcliff Manor, New York, as well as in the Tiffany Studios factory at Corona, Queens. After 30 years and more than 500 windows designed and executed, he left Tiffany Studios in 1923 and moved to Los Angeles to work for Judson Studios.


Julia Halsey Munson

Julia Munson was born in
Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...
, in 1875. Munson was trained at the Artist-Artisan Institute of New York. Munson's drawings, preserved in Tiffany & Co. archives, exhibit abstract attention to nature's beauty, namely plants and flowers inspired by Tiffany's glassworks. "The idea of Tiffany's enamels as the link between his stained-glass windows and his jewelry for Tiffany & Co. is well founded. "During the twelve years they collaborated on jewelry, they maintained the practice of taking themes from Tiffany's glass, mosaics, and metalwork, creating jewels that women sought around the world." Although Tiffany's lamps are his most well-known artistic creations, his unique jewelry, characterised by vibrant colors, unusual stones, and exotic motifs, has also become sought after by collectors of fine jewelry. In 1903, Julia Munson became the head of Tiffany & Co.'s jewelry department. She played a pivotal role in developing the enameling techniques used in Tiffany's jewelry, although her significant contributions remained largely unrecognized at the time, as none of the pieces she worked on were signed. One notable example of their collaboration is the ''Peacock Necklace'' (circa 1906), designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and crafted by Munson. The necklace showcases opals, amethysts, sapphires, and demantoid garnets, all set in intricate cloisonné enamel on gold.


Agnes Northrop

Agnes Northrop (1857 – 1953) started as a "Tiffany Girl" and became a designer. In 2024 the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
acquired her stained glass triptych entitled ''Garden Landscape''


Finality

Tiffany’s glass fell out of favor in the 1910s, and by the 1920s a foundry had been installed for a separate bronze company. Tiffany's leadership and talent, as well as his father's money and old firm, allowed Tiffany to relaunch Tiffany Studios as a marketing strategy for his business to thrive. In 1924 the firm underwent a name change, and was renamed the ''A. Douglas Nash Company.'' Leslie Nash states that they "made glass for only one and a half years" which would suggest that the firm stopped producing favrile glass by 1927 or the latest by 1929. Leslie Nash, son of Arthur Nash, describes the ultimate demise of the company in the context of the Great Depression: In 1932, Tiffany Studios filed for bankruptcy. Ownership of the complex passed back to the original owners of the factory — the Roman Bronze Works — which had served as a subcontractor to Tiffany for many years.” John Polachek, founder of the General Bronze Corporation —who had worked at the Tiffany Studios earlier— purchased the Roman Bronze Works (the old Tiffany Studios). General Bronze then became the largest bronze fabricator in New York City formed through the merger of his own companies and Tiffany's Corona factory. Today, the ''Louis Tiffany School'' or New York City'sbr>P.S. (public school) 110Q
is now built on that site.


Controversy

The relations between Louis C. Tiffany and his highly-gifted artisans—such as between Arthur Nash and his family business relationships with Tiffany; or Clara Driscoll, his head designer for lamps and stained-glass windows—-will probably never be known. Clara Driscoll's work was never once publicly acknowledged. Arthur Nash, who served as the head of Tiffany's glassworks, was never once publicly acknowledged either. They have been under scrutiny ever since Tiffany retired after the stock market crash of 1929. "The exact nature of Arthur Nash's business relation to Tiffany remains problematic. That ne firmwas named the Stourbridge Glass Company in deference to Arthur Nash's previous work in England suggests Nash's eminence and influence." It would appear that contracts negotiated between Tiffany and Nash's Stourbridge Glass Co. limited Nash's artistic control, and that, "there was a phrase that gave Louis C. Tiffany artistic control. Until then, Louis Tiffany's name had not appeared on the company's documents, but suddenly he was listed as president." On January 6, 1920, the firm was incorporated as the ''Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc.'' At this time, Tiffany was still president, but most of his shares had been already transferred to the charitable foundations for artists that he had legally set up in his name. After this, the Nash family — Arthur J., and his two sons, A. Douglas and Leslie — owned a large block of the company. The closing of the factory has also been a matter of some debate. Overall, findings would suggest that the factory closed circa 1929-1930. Louis Tiffany subsequently died in 1933.


White House

The new firm's most notable work came in 1882 when U.S. president Chester Alan Arthur refused to move into the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
until it had been redecorated. Arthur commissioned Tiffany, who began to make a name for himself in New York City society for the firm's
interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...
work, to redo the state rooms, which Arthur found charmless. Tiffany worked on the East Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, the State Dining Room, and the Entrance Hall, refurnishing, repainting in decorative patterns, installing newly designed mantelpieces, changing to wallpaper with dense patterns, and adding Tiffany glass to gaslight fixtures and windows and adding an opalescent floor-to-ceiling glass screen in the Entrance Hall. The Tiffany screen and other Victorian additions were all removed in the Roosevelt renovations of 1902, which restored the White House interiors to Federal style in keeping with its architecture.


First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh

The First Presbyterian Church building of 1905 in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, uses Tiffany windows that partially make use of painted glass. 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 William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
in England. Fellow artists and glassmakers Oliver Kimberly and Frank Duffner, founders of the Duffner and Kimberly Company and John La Farge were Tiffany's chief competitors in this new American style of stained glass. Tiffany, Duffner and Kimberly, along with La Farge, had learned their craft at the same glasshouses in Brooklyn in the late 1870s. In 1889, at the Paris Exposition, Tiffany was said to have been "overwhelmed" by the glass work of
Émile Gallé Émile Gallé (; 4 May 1846 in Nancy, France, Nancy – 23 September 1904 in Nancy) was a French artist and designer who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major innovators in the French Art Nouveau movement. He was noted fo ...
, French
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
artisan. He also met artist Alphonse Mucha. In 1900, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he won a gold medal with his stained glass windows ''The Four Seasons'' Recent research by
Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
professor Martin Eidelberg suggests that a team of talented single women designers, sometimes referred to as the "Tiffany Girls", led by Clara Driscoll played a big role in designing many of the floral patterns on the famous Tiffany lamp and other creations. Tiffany interiors also made considerable use of
mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...
s. The mosaics workshop, largely staffed by women, was overseen until 1898 by the Swiss-born sculptor and designer Jacob Adolphus Holzer.


Tiffany & Co.

In 1902, Tiffany became the first design director for Tiffany & Co., the jewelry company founded by his father. 1911 saw the installation of an enormous glass curtain fabricated for the Palacio de Bellas Artes in
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. It is considered by some to be a masterpiece.
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Tiffany used all his skills in the design of his own house, the 84-room Laurelton Hall, in the village of Laurel Hollow, on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, New York, completed in 1905. Later this estate was donated to his foundation for art students along with 60 acres (243,000 m2) of land, sold in 1949, and destroyed by a fire in 1957. Aside from his fame for glass and jewelry design, Tiffany also designed what we know today as the
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logo, originally used in 1877 as part of the NYPD's Medal of Valor.


Personal life

Tiffany married Mary Woodbridge Goddard on May 15, 1872, in
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, and had four children: *Mary Woodbridge Tiffany (1873–1963) who married Graham Lusk; *Charles Louis Tiffany I (1874–1874); *Charles Louis Tiffany II (1878–1947) who married Katrina Brandes Ely; *Hilda Goddard Tiffany (1879–1908), the youngest. After the death of his wife, he married Louise Wakeman Knox (1851–1904) on November 9, 1886. They had four children: *Louise Comfort Tiffany (1887–1974), who married Rodman Drake DeKay Gilder; *Julia DeForest Tiffany (1887–1973), who married Gurdon S. Parker then married Francis Minot Weld; *Annie Olivia Tiffany (1888–1892); and * Dorothy Trimble Tiffany (1891–1979), who, as Dorothy Burlingham, later became a noted
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
and lifelong friend and partner of Anna Freud.


Laurelton Hall

Tiffany had designed and built Laurelton Hall but has long since been demolished. It was situated in the village of Laurel Hollow in the town of Oyster Bay on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, New York. It was built as an 84-room mansion on 600 acres of land, designed in classic
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
style. "Laurelton was ever-evolving," according to Alice Frelinghuysen. The house, as well as the gardens, both manifested and embodied Tiffany's artistic expression. "He filled museum-style cases with hundreds of the best examples of his own glass vases. pottery, enamelware, juxtaposed with Roman and Syrian glass, Egyptian jewelry, and Near Eastern ceramics and tiles."


Death

Tiffany died on January 17, 1933, and is interred in
Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...
in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, New York City. Tiffany is the great-grandfather of investor George Gilder.


Societies

* American Watercolor Society * Architectural League * Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
in 1900 * Imperial Society of Fine Arts (Tokyo) * National Academy of Design in 1880 * New York Society of Fine Arts * Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (Paris) * Society of American Artists in 1877 Source:"Louis C. Tiffany, Noted Artist, Dies"
''
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'' (January 18, 1933)


Awards and Honors

* 1893: 44 medals, World Columbian Exposition (Chicago) * 1900: gold medal, Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
(France) * 1900: grand prix, Paris Exposition * 1901: grand prix, St. Petersburg Exposition * 1901: gold medal, Buffalo Exposition * 1901: gold medal, Dresden Exposition * 1902: gold medal and special diploma, Turin Exposition * 1904: gold medal, Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis * 1907: gold medal, Jamestown Exposition * 1909: grand prize, Seattle Exposition * 1915: gold medal, Panama Exposition * 1926: gold medal, Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition Source:


Collections

The
Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, a museum noted for its Art Nouveau collection, houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fine ...
in Winter Park, 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 Tiffany Chapel he designed for the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...
in Chicago. After the close of the exposition, a benefactor purchased the entire chapel for installation in the crypt of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York in New York City. As construction on the cathedral continued, the chapel fell into disuse, and in 1916, Tiffany removed the bulk of it to Laurelton Hall. After a 1957 fire, Hugh McKean, a former art student in 1930 at Laurelton Hall, and his wife Jeannette Genius McKean rescued the chapel, which now occupies an entire wing of the Morse Museum which they founded. Many glass panels from Laurelton Hall are also there; for many years some were on display in local restaurants and businesses in
Central Florida Central Florida is a Regions of the United States#Florida, region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, in ...
. Some were replaced by full-scale color transparencies after the museum opened. In November 2006, a major exhibit at Laurelton Hall at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
opened. In 2007, an exhibit at the New-York Historical Society featured new information about the women who worked for Tiffany and their contribution to designs credited to Tiffany; the Society holds and exhibits a major collection of Tiffany's work. Since 1995, the Queens Museum of Art has featured a permanent collection of Tiffany objects, which continues Tiffany's presence in Corona, Queens where the company's studios were once located. Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church in
Richmond, Indiana Richmond () is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana, United States. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,720. It is the principal c ...
, has a collection of 62 Tiffany windows which are still their original placements, but the church is deteriorating and in jeopardy. In 1906, Tiffany created stained glass windows for the Stanford White-designed Madison Square Presbyterian Church located on
Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stree ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. The church was Tiffany's place of worship, and was torn down in 1919 after the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company bought the land to build their new
headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...
. Tiffany had inserted a clause in his contract stipulating that if the church were ever to be demolished, then ownership of the windows would revert to him. Tiffany enjoyed staying at the Mission Inn in
Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...
, and had become friends with the founder of the Mission Inn, Frank Augustus Miller, so, after meeting with Miller in New York, Tiffany shipped the windows to the Mission Inn; they arrived there in 1924, and were stored until the inn's St. Francis Chapel was completed in 1931. There are six rectangular windows and a 104” diameter window in the rear of the chapel, as well as another 104” diameter window is in the Galeria next to the chapel. A smaller window entitled “Monk At The Organ” featuring a
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
friar, is in St Cecelia's Chapel, a wedding chapel, and is engraved with Tiffany's signature. The St Francis Chapel was designed with the intent of prominently displaying Tiffany's windows. The Arlington Street Church in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
has 16 Tiffany windows of a set of 20, designed by Frederick Wilson (1858–1932), Tiffany's chief designer for ecclesiastical windows. They were gradually installed between 1889 and 1929. The church archives include designs for 4 additional windows which were never commissioned due to financial constraints caused by the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. When funds again became available, Tiffany Studios had gone out of business and its stockpile of glass had been dispersed and lost, ending the prospect of completing the set. Also in the
Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on Land reclamation, reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the ...
district of Boston is Frederick Ayer Mansion, one of three surviving examples of Tiffany interiors, and the only surviving building also possessing exterior mosaics designed by Tiffany. The Pine Street Baptist Church in
Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, was opened in 1917 at Lloyd and Wayland Street as Central Baptist and in 2003, became known as Community Church of Providence. Between 1917 and 2018 the church featured a large Tiffany stained glass memorial to Frederick W. Hartwell that was created by Agnes F. Northrop and entitled "Light in Heaven and Earth". The complex work, considered "one of the largest and finest landscape windows ever produced by Tiffany Studios", largely was overlooked in the community. In 2018, the church sold the window to the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
. After conservation and preparation, it will be displayed prominently as the Hartwell Memorial Window. Significant collections of Tiffany windows outside the United States are the 17 windows in the former Erskine and American United Church, now part of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada,Mathieu, Christine Johanne
''The History of the Tiffany Windows at the Erskine and American Church, Montreal''
Concordia University (Master of Arts Thesis), 1999
and the two windows in the American Church in Paris, on the Quai d'Orsay, which have been classified as National Monuments by the French government; these were commissioned by Rodman Wanamaker in 1901 for the original American Church building on the right bank of the
Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
. The Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington, England,"Haworth Art Gallery"
on the Hyndburn Borough Council website
contains a collection of more than 140 examples of the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, including vases, tiles, lamps, and mosaics. The collection, which claims to be the largest collection of publicly owned Tiffany glass outside of the United States, contains a fine example of an Aquamarine vase and the noted Sulphur Crested Cockatoos mosaic.


Gallery

File:Tiffany_Window_of_St_Augustine_-_Lightner_Museum.jpg, Window of St. Augustine, in the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida File:Girl with Cherry Blossoms - Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company, c. 1890.JPG, ''Girl with Cherry Blossoms'' (c. 1890) File:tifftree.JPG, ''The Tree of Life'' stained glass File:WLA ima Angel of the Resurrection.jpg, '' Angel of the Resurrection'' (1904), in the Indianapolis Museum of Art File:The New Creation by Tiffany.jpg, ''The New Creation'', at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church,
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
File:Baptism of Christ by Tiffany.jpg, ''The Baptism of Christ'', at Brown Memorial File:LockportStainedGlass.jpg, ''Nicodemus Came to Him by Night'', First Presbyterian Church, Lockport, New York File:John-the-baptist-by-tiffany.jpg,
John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
at Arlington Street Church in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
File:Sermon-on-the-mount-tiffany.jpg, Sermon on the Mount at Arlington Street Church in Boston File:Tiffany Jesus Window in Pullman Memorial Universalist Church.jpg, ''Christ the Consoler'' at Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, Albion, New York File:95, Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (cropped).jpg, Corey Memorial Window ( 1892-95), formerly at Christ Reformed Episcopal Church and now in the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
Image:The Holy City.jpg, ''The Holy City'' (1905), representing St. John's vision on the isle of Patmos, one of eleven Tiffany windows at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
; with 58 panels, it is believed to be one of the largest Tiffany Studios windows
File:Tiffany Education.JPG, ''Education'', the Chittenden Memorial Window at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
File:VMFA Tiffany Lamps.jpg, Collection of Tiffany lamps from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts File:Wisteria Tiffany Studios Lamp.jpg, Wisteria table lamp File:Tiffany Studios - Eighteen-Light Lily Lamp - up - HNT.jpg, Eighteen Lily floriform lamp by the Tiffany Studios (c. 1902) in the collection of The Huntington Library Art Museum in San Marino, CA. File:Fourth Universalist Tiffany Altar.jpg, Altar designed by Tiffany at the
Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York The Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York is a congregation within the Unitarian Universalist Association located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is the last surviving of seven Christian Universalism, Universalist congrega ...


See also

* Tiffany glass * The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation * Art Nouveau glass art


References

Notes Sources * Eidelberg, M., Gray, N., & Hofer, M. ''A New Light On Tiffany — Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls''. The New York Historical Society, New York, 2007. * Eidelberg, M. & McClelland, N. ''Behind the Scenes of Tiffany Glassmaking.'' St. Martin's Press, New York, 2001. * Frelinghuysen, A. ''Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001. * Johnson, M., Burlingham, M., Kahn, M., & Joppien, R. ''Louis Comfort Tiffany: artist for the ages''. Scala, London, 2005. * Kemeny, G. & Miller, D. ''Tiffany Desk Treasures''. Hudson Hills Press, New York, 2002. * Loring, J. ''Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany & Co.'' Tiffany style. Harry Abrams, New York, 2008. * Paul, T. ''The Art of Louis comfort Tiffany.'' New Burlington Books, London, 2004. * Tiffany, Louis Comfort & de Kay, Charles. ''The Art Work of Louis C. Tiffany''. Doubleday, Page & Co, New York, 1916. Further reading * Couldrey, Vivienne. ''The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany''. Bloomsbury Publications, London, 1989, * Duncan, Alastair. ''Tiffany Windows''. Thames & Hudson, London, 1980, * * Koch, Robert H. ''Louis C. Tiffany – Rebel in Glass''. 3rd Ed., Crown Publishers Inc, New York, 1982, ASIN B 0007DRJK0 * Logan, Ernest Edwin. ''The Church That Was Twice Born: A History of the First Presbyterian Church Of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1773–1973''. Pickwick-Morcraft, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1973 * Rago, David. "Tiffany Pottery" in ''American Art Pottery''. Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1997 *


External links


Tiffany Digital Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries

Tiffany Treasures: Favrile Glass from Special Collections.
Information on the 2009–2010 exhibition at The Corning Museum of Glass.

*
Louis Comfort Tiffany objects in the collection of the
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Louis Comfort Tiffany Pictorial Histories

Press Release on Metropolitan 2006–07 exhibition about Laurelton Hall

Tiffany and The Associated Artists' work on the Mark Twain House



Willard Memorial Chapel


at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2010).

at Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Indiana.
Ayer Mansion, Back Bay, Boston
(no
Bayridge Residence and Cultural Center
)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiffany, Louis Comfort 1848 births 1933 deaths American glass artists American interior designers American Orientalist painters American people of English descent American stained glass artists and manufacturers Artists from New York City Art Nouveau designers Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery Knights of the Legion of Honour National Sculpture Society members People from Laurel Hollow, New York Tiffany & Co. Tiffany family Tiffany Studios Widener University alumni