Flower, Fish, and Fruit, Louis Comfort Tiffany

Colored glass and sunlight go hand-in-hand. In this window, bright light shines through bits of colored glass, creating a glorious still life arrangement of fruit, flowers, ribbons, and goldfish swimming about in watery bowls. During the late 1800s, stained glass windows were the height of fashion, and many households proudly displayed at least one. This window adorned the space above a doorway in the dining room of a fancy Baltimore townhouse. The window’s designer was Louis Comfort Tiffany, one of the world’s most famous glassmakers. As a young traveler in Europe, Tiffany was spellbound by the 500-year-old stained glass windows that filled medieval cathedrals with glowing color. Each window was constructed with small pieces of colored glass held together with black leading. By comparison, the colored windows in many American churches looked dull. Their color had been painted on the surface of clear panes of glass, blocking out the sunlight. Back home, Tiffany set out to discover the secret of manufacturing glass that could rival the vivid colors of the old cathedral windows. With the curiosity of a scientist and the ambition of a businessman, Tiffany and his employees conducted experiment after experiment, adding metallic powders to molten glass. After many failed attempts, they came up with successful formulas and were able to fill the cellar of their glassmaking factory with sheets of glass in 5,000 different shades and textures. Using paper patterns of their own design, they planned and cut their small glass shapes with extreme care so that they would fit together as precisely as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Challenge for Students

Find areas in Flower, Fish, and Fruit where several colors appear in a single piece of glass. Where do you see colors that are mottled or streaked? What makes the fishbowls look watery? Use colored tissue paper and a black paper frame or structure to make your own “stained glass” picture. You can layer one color on another just as Tiffany layered sheets of glass.