Louis Comfort Tiffany

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Louis Comfort Tiffany
1848-1933
Son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, owner of Tiffany
Co. the jewelry shop for millionaires.
Louis was the oldest surviving son of Charles and
Harriet. Very precious to his mother as she had
lost two older sons, he was described as a
willful and dreamy child, proud, solitary and
capricious.
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A Child of Art Nouveau
Imagine the home in which this child, Louis C.
Tiffany found himself. He was not surrounded by
the plain, the ugly or even the simple. His
senses were besieged his hands pressed the
curled and ridged handles of French silver
cutlery he held delicate porcelain to his lips.
These things must have delighted and impressed
the boy, because as an adult he sought to repeat
the aesthetic sensations of his childhood and it
is perhaps significant that Tiffany was at his
best when he worked at a small, detailed level of
creativity.
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In the shadow of the Tiffany workshops, Louis had
many influential craftsmen as influences
throughout his childhood including master
silversmith, Edward C. Moore. Moore encouraged
Louis love of art and urged him to study the
arts and collect objects dart. Among Moores
talents included his work in glass. Louis was
entranced by Moores glass collection --- glass
proved to be the great passion in Tiffanys life.
This also brought Tiffany recognition as a truly
original artist.
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Louis left school in 1866. Despite his
mothers hopes, his formal education taught him
to loathe authority. His was not a submissive,
but a competitive naturenon-conformist,
individualistic, exacting and autocratic. He was
a perfectionist, and he was self-confident.
These traits, combined with great wealth, gave
him formidable advantages.
He started his adult life as a painter and had no
argument or discussion from his family when he
announced his intention to be an artist. No
doubt, his father has long since given up any
hope that the boy would join him in business.
However, he did not scamper around town, acting
the playboy on his fathers money he was a
serious art student.
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In 1868, Tiffany chose to travel abroad and study
the Middle East and Europe. He also was afforded
the privileges of meeting the finest craftsmen of
their art --- just as the Arts and Crafts
Movement was beginning.
The ideas behind the Arts and Crafts movement
must have seemed very remote to the youthful
Tiffany. Tiffany grew up with artist-artisans
working together. For him, it was a familiar
organization of labor his father did not harbor
nostalgia for the past but simply put men and
machines, craftsmen and designers to work
together. Louis was to remain, throughout his
life, a fervent believer in craftsmen working
together under one roof, though he would one day
borrow other ideas from the Arts and Crafts
movement, he never decried the advantages of
modern technology.
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Tiffany had a profound intellectual curiosity,
but not for philosophies or theories. His was a
creative energy he wanted to understand the
construction of things, of buildings, of lamps,
or furniture, of glass, and how machines
operated he was intrigued by the effects of
light and shade, by colors and shapes. These are
the things he explored, and observed, and read
about. His travels were, for him, journeys of
artistic and technical discovery.
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After returning home from his studies abroad,
Tiffany chose not to return home to his parents
apartment on Fifth Avenue, but chose to rent a
studio at the YMCA.
In his lifetime, Tiffany explored all kinds of
art avenues and used all varieties of medium. He
was a truly great painter. Tiffany was only 27
when he painted Duane Street (left).
Tiffany the painter has been rather neglected
since his death, but he was recognized and highly
regarded in the artistic circles of his time.
Eventually, his own creative force drove him to
seek other forms of expression.
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Fine art was his career, but his wealth allowed
him to pursue other interests. Tiffany started
experiments in glass in 1875 on the basis that
his talents need not be confined to one
medium. By this time Tiffany had married his
first wife, Mary and the couple celebrated the
birth of their first child.
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I have been thinking a great deal about
decorative work, and I am going into it as a
profession. I believe there is more in it than
painting pictures. Tiffany and others later
created Louis C. Tiffany and Associated Artists
who were commissioned to design great interiors
at such residences as the White House, the home
of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and the home of Mark
Twain (shown, right).
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It is difficult to track the diverse activities
and commercial success of Tiffanys life after
1890. There is Tiffany the stained-glass window
designer, the maker of mosaics Tiffany the
industrial artist, with a studio of craftsmen and
apprentices Tiffany the creator of decorative
glassware, and Tiffany the architect.
Throughout his career, Tiffany studied and
mastered

• Mosaics
• Paint oil and watercolor
• Metals
• Pottery
• Photography
• Architecture design
• Interior design
• Textile design
• Glass windows, tiles, vases

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Paintings in Glass
Tiffany, along with Samuel Bing, developed an
idea to commission French artists to submit
paintings that Tiffany could execute in stained
glass. This presented a true test of his
cherished ambition to make glass paintings
without any tricks of marking or drawing on the
medium.
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FAVRILE Belonging to the craft
Under the Favrile trademark, Tiffany marketed his
unique glass pieces. Thus, Tiffany, the
industrial artist, was launched but so too was
Tiffany the creator of Art Nouveau glass
ornaments.
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Today, Louis Comfort Tiffany is best known for
the Tiffany lamp. A natural outlet for
Tiffanys interest in glass and the effect of
light on color. A Tiffany lamp is now a
generic term for lamps with stained-glass shades.
Wisteria lamp, a favorite from the Tiffany
workshops
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Many of the Favrile glass objects created by
Louis Tiffany were thrown away, his interiors
were demolished, and his great stained-glass
windows and mosaics were smashed up. Louis
Tiffany had been convinced that, even if the art
critics rejected him, the American Public would
not. Once more he underestimated his true value.
The true genius of Tiffany lies in the
spontaneous and free-flowing forms of his glass
objects. He is seen as a precursor of Abstract
Expressionism and is has been called the Father
of Art Nouveau.