“Still Life with Peonies” Window

“Still Life with Peonies” Window
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933)
for Tiffany Glass & Decorating Co. (1892-1902)
circa 1894-1900

Still Life with Peonies is likely a transcription into glass of an oil painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a rare distinction reserved for some of the most important early Tiffany window designs (most notably the related Feeding the Flamingoes, exhibited to great acclaim at the 1893 Columbian World’s Exposition and now in the collection of The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art).

Tiffany’s approach to leaded glass was that of a painter, a natural outgrowth of his early artistic training; In period materials publicizing Tiffany Windows, Tiffany confidently emphasized that it was “quite as possible to produce a masterpiece in glass as [upon] canvas, when the commission is placed in the hands of a competent artist.”

Depicting an overflowing bouquet set into an ivy-laden niche, Still Life with Peonies fits within a well-established pictorial tradition stretching back to 17th century Dutch still lifes. To achieve a painterly effect, this window incorporates several new types of glass pioneered by Tiffany in the 1890s, including opalescent glass, an early iteration of “confetti” or “foliage” glass, and heavy drapery glass for the velvety petals of the peonies. It is an early example in which Tiffany incorporated the method of plating; the opacity of the vase, which evokes heavy clay earthenware, is achieved through the use of multiple layers of glass.

While it is not known who initially commissioned Still Life With Peonies, domestic windows from this early period of Tiffany’s career were often found in the homes of some of the most illustrious Americans of the time, from Gilded Age scions and captains of industry to prominent art and literary figures.

Height: 54 inches (137.2 cm)
Width: 40 inches (101.6 cm)

Exhibited:
Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany
The Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C. Sept. 29,1989-March 4, 1990
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 12, 1990-Sept. 9, 1990

Illustrated:
Duncan, Eidelberg and Harris, Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Thames and Hudson, Ltd., Japan, 1989, page 145.