The name Tiffany is synonymous with the finest jewellery, and a visit to the ongoing exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris devoted to Louis Comfort Tiffany is like standing inside a jewel box—without a jewel in sight.
The son of the founder of the New York-based Tiffany and Co. preferred glass. His creations, from vases to stained glass windows or the signature Tiffany lamps, are a study in colour, light and innovation that revolutionized glass making, breaking the mould set by European artisans and creating what became known as American glass.
Click here to view a slideshow of American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany’s glass art, featured in the show Louis Comfort Tiffany, Colours and Light
Wisteria lamp, c. 1901, by Louis C. Tiffany, in his patented Favrile glass, lead and bronze, from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, US (gift of Sydney and Frances Lewis). Katherine Wetzel
Gems, gardens, global art The jewellery of his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, who founded Tiffany and Co. in 1837, served as an inspiration for Louis Comfort Tiffany, but it wasn’t the only one.
The younger Tiffany, who travelled widely in Europe, North Africa and elsewhere, was also inspired by Orientalists, Islamic and Japanese art, and the flowers in his garden.
A selection of pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are featured in the show Louis Comfort Tiffany, Colours and Light, which opened last Wednesday. They range from monumental-sized stained glass windows to tiny stamp boxes bejewelled in glass. Rich, luminescent colours glow and dazzle like electric rainbows, while fine, sometimes startling, often lyric designs—best seen in the vases which gained Tiffany international acclaim—evoke a sense of harmony. This is the first display of Tiffany’s works in Paris since the 1900 Paris World Fair.
The window Magnolias (1900), showing a single magnolia branch, lent by Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and first shown at the 1900 Paris World Fair, appears to embody Tiffany’s artistic soul, incorporating his love of nature. The blossoms, with their three-dimensional petals and their confetti-spattered centres, seem alive.
Iridescent peacock feathers show up in numerous lamps, along with the classic Tiffany style.
Gilding the glass lily
Louis Tiffany began his artistic training as a painter, studying in New York and Paris before taking up interior design, where his reputation drew him clients such as Mark Twain, and in 1882, the White House of president Chester A. Arthur.
But it was his innovative work in glass that became the mainstay and has sustained his artistic reputation.
Tiffany believed that the decorative arts could stand up with sculpture and painting.