Tiffany Studios, River of Life Window, early 20th century, leaded glass. Photograph by John Faier.
This exhibit opens February 17 at The Taft Museum of Art:
Opulently colored stained glass, intricately patterned surfaces, and inventive metallic frameworks—these and other traits characterize the brilliant creations of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). A highly original craftsman and artist, Tiffany took natural forms as the primary inspiration for his lush decorative creations. His aesthetic, reinforced and extended by his team of designers, decisively shaped American tastes from the 1880s through the 1920s.
This exhibition presents more than 60 stunning examples of Tiffany’s decorative genius, including vases, lamps, windows, furniture, and ornamental objects. They include such iconic objects as his stained glass plant-form lamps, iridescent blown-glass vases, and illusionistic landscape windows. The exhibition comes from the Richard H. Driehaus Collection in Chicago, one of the country’s preeminent collections of American and European decorative arts. After the exhibition tour, the objects will return to the recently founded Driehaus Museum, opened in 2008 in a splendidly restored Gilded Age mansion.