Born in New York City in 1848, Louis Comfort Tiffany first trained as a painter with American landscape painters George Innes and Samuel Colman, with the National Academy of Design in New York, and with Paris Salon painter Léon Bailey. He was influenced by Pelly’s Orientalist paintings and his travels through North Africa and Western Europe. By the 1870s, his interest shifted to interior design and the decorative arts, and he began a number of commercial ventures in those areas, which garnered commissions for interior design for Mark Twain’s home in Hartford, Connecticut, and several rooms in the President. White House Chester A. Arthur. However, his passion for painting continued throughout his life.
In the 1880s, Tiffany’s artistic and commercial interests shifted to designing and producing decorative glass and he founded the Tiffany Glass Company as his role as an entrepreneur grew during the 1890s, along with a desire to make his own glass, established a glass furnace in Queens and established Ultimately a large workshop employed craftsmen from nearly every medium of the decorative arts–silversmiths, jewelers, stonemasons, cabinetmakers, weavers, carvers, embroiderers, and glassmakers, all united by his vision.
In 1893, Tiffany created a spectacular display for the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition featuring stained mosaic glass countertops, stained glass windows, and the imaginative use of electric lighting. The attendance of 1.4 million visitors and the winning of 44 medals proved its popularity and success as an international reputation. Important commissions followed, including from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Public Library, and the Marshall Field & Company Store as well as numerous hotels, churches, cathedrals, office buildings, and more.
Spokane even had Tiffany’s commission: stunning stained-glass windows for Patsy Clark’s mansion. In 1902, he changed his company name to Tiffany Studios. After his father’s death the same year, he also became his father’s art director, Charles Lewis of Tiffany & Co., known for its luxury goods.
If you travel a few hours east, you can see for yourself. The exhibition “Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Dryhouse Collection” at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane features more than 60 pieces spanning over 30 years of Tiffany’s prolific career. See for yourself the artistry and craftsmanship of the exquisite stained glass windows, vases, lamps, and accessories from the Richard H.
The exhibition will run until February 13th.
• David Links is the Executive Director of Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley College. He writes this weekly column for SCENE. Learn more at www.larsongallery.org.
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