Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) is a famous American multitalented artist. He is eminent for his stained glasswork, yet he practiced blown glass design, ceramic art, metalwork, and was a decorator and an internal designer. Many look at Tiffany as an artist who gave name through his glasswork to the Art Nouveau movement. Tiffany’s stained desk lamp is a typical example of the Art Nouveau style. Tiffany began the stained glass experiments in 1875; three years later he had his own glassmaking factory and became a renowned glassmaker because of his innovations. He used colored glass instead of painting glass and introduced one variety of sparkling glass that he called favrile (traced to a French word that means homemade).
The works of William Morris (an English artist who founded the Arts and Crafts movement in England) influenced Tiffany’s work. The public’s interest in Tiffany’s glassworks revived in the mid-fifties of the 20th. Century heralded by the display of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York. Interest continued and remained strong for the second half of the 20th. Century with many museums displaying Tiffany’s works in the US and Japan. The last of these displays was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2007 (Kulpa, pp. 5-18).
Of all Tiffany’s work, stained glass created the credit for him as a unique artist. Tiffany’s unique techniques and characteristic skills were: the use of mottled glasses which needed proper temperature control and adding fluorine and textile (drapery) glass, which was not Tiffany’s invention yet he perfected the technique. Tiffany also perfected the old Venetian technique of inserting pieces of colored glass into a sheet of clear glass (Confetti or fractured glass technique), Tiffany used glass jewels almost universally in his windows.
He also used hydrochloric acid and an acid-resistant wax to engrave uncovered areas of glass producing designs of many colors. Tiffany used the technique of plating (putting one or more pieces of glass on top of a first layer resulting in greater color depth and liveliness). He used to lead (leading) to lay emphasis on certain parts of the design (as trunks or branches in a landscape design). Tiffany occasionally splattered colors onto his windows to augment the effects of certain elements (as flowers) in the window’s design. His line in design was to use the rich structures found in nature. His beginnings as a painter tutored by landscapists George Inness and Samuel Colman in New York may have influenced his artistic line in glasswork (Hardy and others, 2.4, pp.2-5).
Tiffany’s most famous glasswork like the lamp with dragon motif, window with the garden landscape, window panel with red apples on a branch, and aquamarine footed bowel are characterized by his deep appreciation of colors. Besides realizing the beauty of colors, Tiffany’s daring fortitude made him produce works that rise above their times. He took artistic freedom to develop, perfect, and change glasswork techniques guided by his artistic foresight.
He had the insight to look to the beauties of the past; he used the ancient Cameo Roman technique to make vase glasswork. He engraved this vase with green leaves having an amber tone of color giving an ancient Egyptian touch to the Roman technique (Miller, p. 18).
Tiffany put his artistic, technical, and industrial management talents into various media other than glasswork, yet he was recognized by the world for his glasswork innovative work. His continuous search for beauty and passion for nature and colors are shown in more than 130 pieces of glassworks in museums. Tiffany’s glasswork has challenged time and despite swings in his reputation as an artist, the revival of public and artists’ interest in his works is strong and continuous for more than 50 years. Tiffany worked with the same ingredients and tools known to glassmakers before him, but the secret is he moved the science of glassmaking to an art driven by his vision of colors, beauty, and nature.
Works Cited
Equal Opportunity Program. US Department of Interior, National Park Service. City of Vallejo, California. Saint Peters Chapel Historic Structure Report. By Hardy, T R, Tennebaum, N, Manheim, T, Donovan, K, et al. 2007. Web.
Kulpa, P C. An Investigation Into Louis Comfort Tiffany’s and Tiffany Studios’ Architectural Metalwork. Meighan, M S. M.Sc. Thesis, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. 2008, University of Pennsylvania. Web.
Miller B E. “Tiffany: The Man Who Redefined Stained Glass.” The Christian Science Monitor 2006: 18.