December 2016 - Orlando FL
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fine collections of late-19th- and early-20th-century American paintings, graphics and the decorative arts.
Being the Friday before New Year's finding a parking spot was tough. But we lucked out the second time we drove through the museum parking lot as someone was just leaving.
My jaw just dropped when I walked in and saw this window.
Door panels C 1905.
The Tiffany collection forms the centerpiece of the Morse Museum. It includes examples in every medium he explored, in every kind of work he produced, and from every period of his life. Holdings range from award-winning leaded-glass windows down to glass buttons. It includes paintings and extensive examples of his pottery, as well as jewelry, enamels, mosaics, watercolors, lamps, furniture and examples of his Favrile blown glass.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork. He was the first Design Director at his family company, Tiffany & Co., founded by his father Charles Lewis Tiffany.
Windows c 1895.
Louis Comfort Tiffany loved daffodils—a flower that heralds spring and is rich in symbolic meaning. Not only did he cultivate them and plant them prominently at his Long Island country estate, Laurelton Hall, he created his own versions in glass for windows, lamps, and column capitals.
The peacock necklace was crafted by jeweler Julian Munson (Sherman) for exhibition between 1903 and 1906.
Comprised of enamel, opal, amethyst, ruby, sapphire, demantoid garnet, emerald, chrysoberyl and gold, this is the most important existing work in this medium. The front medallion features a peacock mosaic of opals and enamels surrounded by amethysts and sapphires. According to the Morse Museum, exhibition pieces like this one were finished on both sides, and the back of this necklace features an enameled design of pink flamingoes.
A little fuzzy but it gives you an idea.
These were John's favourites, part of the American Arts and Crafts display. I wish I had taken the folder with the information, as I can't find anything online.
Madonna and Child window, c. 1890
Exhibited: World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
Leaded glass
Tiffany Glass Company, New York, 1885–92
In 2011, the Morse Museum’s opened a wing in which to exhibit its collection of art and architectural objects from Louis Comfort Tiffany’s celebrated Long Island home, Laurelton Hall—the largest repository of these materials anywhere.
The exhibition features the restored Daffodil Terrace and approximately 200 objects from or related to the estate. These include prize-winning leaded-glass windows, iconic Tiffany lamps, custom furnishings, as well as art glass and pottery in Tiffany’s personal collection.
The Daffodil Terrace
The Daffodil Terrace, installed in a glass-enclosed gallery, is situated with a view of an expanded garden courtyard at the Museum and presented in a manner related to its original location at Laurelton Hall. The 18-by-32-foot outdoor terrace exemplifies Tiffany’s unique and dramatic style. Supported by eight 11-foot marble columns that are topped with bouquets of glass daffodils, the terrace’s coffered ceiling is composed of hundreds of stenciled wood elements and molded tiles in three bays. The central bay features a skylight covered by six large panels of iridescent-glass tiles in a pear-tree motif.
Summer and Autumn
The “Maiden Feeding Flamingos in the court of a Roman house” window c. 1892
Reception hall gallery
Highlights from the dining-room installation include: a 13.5-foot-high, mosaic-decorated marble mantelpiece that is one of Tiffany’s most forward-looking designs; a 25-foot-long Oriental rug; a domed leaded-glass chandelier 6.5 feet in diameter; and a suite of six leaded-glass Wisteria transoms.
Those windows are amazing!
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