Louis Comfort Tiffany

American artist and designer (February 18,1848-January 17, 1933) Son of famed jeweler Charles Louis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Company When 18 he traveled through Europe and was amazed by the beauty of the stained glass.

His later life He won an award for his famous stained glass window The Four Seasons

Rather than paint on glass like the early stained glass in Europe, Tiffany developed a way to make the colored glass which was called favrile glass. The “robber barons” of the second industrial revolution such as Vanderbilt, Carnegie and Rockefeller amassed huge fortunes that the were eager to spend on decorating their huge homes. Tiffany designed windows for their homes and jewelry for their wives.

Autumn Landscapes

He used cheap jars and bottles at the beginning of his career because they had mineral impurities that finer glass lacks helping him to create his favrile (new) glass.

In 1898 Tiffany teamed with another giant of the second industrial revolution, Thomas Edison, to create lamps that were operated with electricity. These lamps also gave access to original art to the “common man”

Tiffany used the beauty of nature as inspiration for his pieces.

In 1957 the mansion created by Tiffany, Laurelton Hall, was destroyed by fire. The home was a masterpiece combining his passion for color, art and light. By this time his work had fallen out of fashion but many pieces have been salvaged and are housed in the Morse Museum of American Art.