Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 - 1933)
Born Louis Comfort Tiffany on February 18, 1848, in New York City to the founder of Tiffany & Co., Charles Lewis Tiffany.
Studied painting at the National Academy of Design in 1867 but turned to glassmaking in 1875. He is today considered one of the world's most famous stained-glass artists. Today his works sells for thousands and sometimes millions of dollars.
Is known for his stained-glass windows and lamps, blown glass vases and sculptures, and glass mosaics. Tiffany was also the first design director of Tiffany & Co. from 1902 - 1919, and designed furniture, rooms, and buildings for wealthy patrons.
Died on January 17, 1933, at the age of 84, in New York City.
You can explore the wide variety of art created by Louis Comfort Tiffany at Google Arts & Culture. He designed some of the rooms in Mark Twain's home in Hartford, CT, which is a museum you can visit. Boston is home to the only remaining fully-designed Tiffany building. The Ayers Mansion on Commonowealth Avenue is currently undergoing renovation, and can be yours for $14,995,000.
In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur commissioned Tiffany to redesign four state rooms in the White House. Unfortunately, the designs now only exist in photographs and renderings, because when Theodore Roosevelt became President in 1902, he had it all of the Tiffany decor removed. Though Roosevelt felt he was restoring the building back to its intended Federalist design, priceless Tiffany artifacts were lost forever. If you watch Antiques Road show on PBS, Tiffany designed lamps, vases, and jewelry surface from time to time. The owners are always shocked at how valuable the items are!
What do you notice? ✏️ What do you wonder? ✏️ What do you like or dislike?
Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl was first displayed at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, where it was seen by 1.8 million people. It was modeled after an illustration of Carolina Parakeets by John James Audubon, from his 1826 collection of engravings, Birds of America. This was Tiffany's first piece to only use favrile glass, a type of opalescent glass that he designed and patented. (The bird was thought to be extinct in 1918, and was officially classified as extinct in 1939.)
Louis Comfort Tiffany.pdf