Louis Comfort Tiffany
(1848-1933)

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." St. Paul’s Church is fortunate to have thirteen of the main sanctuary windows by Tiffany Studios that illustrate this pursuit of beauty.

Although Louis’s father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, was hopeful that his son would pursue working in the prestigious family business Tiffany & Co. It became clear early on that Louis, who originally trained as a painter, was interested in pursuing his own interests in the chemistry and techniques of glassmaking. A young Tiffany partnered in a firm that pursued the modern idea of aesthetic idealism as applied to the practice of interior design. Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated American Artists' thrived until 1885.

In 1885, Tiffany established his own firm. His new focus was on developing methods of glass manufacture. Four years earlier he had 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.

Tiffany was convinced that 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.

Tiffany's aesthetic was based on his conviction that nature should be the primary source of design inspiration. He translated into glass the luminous palette found in flowers and plants. In 1893 Tiffany introduced his first blown-glass vases and bowls, called "Favrile," whose 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.

Louis Comfort Tiffany actually located [c. 1893] his Tiffany Studios factory, called the Tiffany Glass Furnaces, in Corona, Queens. Here Tiffany functioned as the ultimate authority over more than three hundred workers, designers and artists, glass blowers and gaffers, and artisans of numerous other tasks.

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.

L. C. Tiffany became Artistic Director of Tiffany & Co. after his father's death in 1902, and the company sold many Tiffany Studios wares. 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.

Tiffany's work reflects the efforts to resolve the conflicting ideals of the Arts and Craft 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.

Copy exerps from the website of The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art http://www.morsemuseum.org