History

It is a matter of education, and we shell never have good art in our homes until the people learn to distinguish the beautiful from the ugly. 

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 1933) was the most important master of the decorative arts in ’s “gilded age”. He was a true visionary and one of the most original, creative, and influential designers of the period.  

Tiffany’s widely varied career stretched over more than half a century, from 1870 to the middle of the 1920’s. He possessed natural talent in numerous artistic fields. Early in his career Tiffany proved to be a gifted painter, an aspect of his work that often escapes public attention. He was also an architect, designed both landscapes and interiors, and created new styles for furniture, draperies, wallpaper, and rugs. His pursuits of a unique vision led him to employ diverse materials including enamels, ornamental bronze, ceramics, silver, wood and wrought iron to produce everything from crucifixes and candelabras to more prosaic items such as desk sets, clocks and picture frames. 

But as exquisite as these objects are, Tiffany is known all over the world as ’s premier glass artist. Glass was the medium in which he excelled, for the intrinsic beauty of the material opened limitless creative possibilities and permitted him the optimal realization of his aesthetic ideas. Under his direct supervision, the expert artisans in his studio produced thousands of stained glass windows and lamps, tableware, mosaic and the most magnificent glass jewelry.

It was of the utmost importance to Tiffany that every one of his creations be unique, and that each should bear the stamp of his individual public the excitement of color and form that he personally enjoyed. He once asserted, “I have always striven to fix beauty in wood or stone, or glass or pottery, in oil or water-color, by using whatever seemed fittest for the expression of beauty; that has been my creed, and I see no reason to change it”.

Even though most of his work was created to please late 19^th century tastes, Louis Comfort Tiffany was nevertheless the first American industrial artist to design in the spirit of the modern age. In contrast to Victorian design practices, he worked without rules, patterns of formulae. Tiffany’s only (and seemingly endless) sources of inspiration were the beauty of the natural world and its spectrum of colors. He expressly discouraged imitation or coping: “God has given us our talents not to copy the talents of other, but rather to use our brains and our imagination in order to obtain the revelation of true beauty.” A restless man, Tiffany applied his energy and vitality to a constant search for new technical inventions that would allow him to become master of several media, and he demanded only the highest quality work from every department of his enterprise. His design legacy and imaginative virtuosity have gained him a permanent place as one of ’s greatest creative geniuses.