4454B Rare Pair of 19th Century Monumental John LaFarge Jeweled and Leaded Stained Glass Windows w Large Carved Cresting Pieces with Inset Marble
Height: 120 in. (304.80 cm)
Width: 75 in. (190.50 cm)
Depth:
Country of Origin: USA
Style: American
Maker: John LaFarge
Condition: Excellent
Year: c1880
Rare Pair of 19th Century Monumental John LaFarge Jeweled and Leaded Stained Glass Windows w Large Carved Cresting Pieces with Inset Marble
A most magnificent pair of stained and jeweled glass windows, attributed to John La Farge, a contemporary and competitor of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The identical pair depicts Central blossoms emerge from the center of each glass panel, in rose and pink, against striated glass. The tall blossoms reaching for the blue sky above are flanked two architectural columns.
These wonderful windows were rescued from a mansion in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were once used as landing windows in a beautiful stairway. The lovely carved cresting pieces with inset marble were designed specifically for these impossible to find, statement making La Farge windows.
These windows are perfect for a large stairway and/ landing. Plan your stairway around these very significant 19th century windows.
Dimensions: 10'H x 6'W
Price: $220,000.00
John La Farge (1835-1910) was an American painter, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer.
Born in New York City to wealthy French émigré Roman Catholic parents, La Farge grew up in a cultured French-speaking household. He received a Catholic education at St. John's College (later Fordham) in New York and at Mt. Saint Mary's College in Maryland, where he graduated in 1853.
Uncertain about a career in law that he began to pursue, he went to Paris in 1856 and briefly studied painting with Thomas Couture. Returning to New York, he took a space in the new Tenth Street Studio Building. In 1859 he went to work with painter William Morris Hunt in Newport, Rhode Island, but soon left the studio to paint directly from nature, inspired by Newport's beautiful environment and his own advanced approach to aesthetics. It was in Newport during the 1860s and early 1870s that some critics suggest that La Farge produced the first impressionist experiments painted on American soil and also some of the most beautiful flower paintings ever created.
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, La Farge became a pioneer in collecting Japanese art and incorporating Japanese effects into his work. He may have purchased his first Japanese prints in Paris in 1856, and this interest was probably encouraged by his marriage in 1860 to Margaret Perry (with whom he had ten children), niece of the Commodore who had opened Japan to the West. By the early 1860s, La Farge was not only collecting Japanese prints, but was also making use of Japanese compositional ideas in his paintings to create effects which looked strange, empty, and unbalanced by Western standards. In 1869, La Farge published an essay on Japanese art, the first ever written by a Western artist, in which he particularly noted the asymmetrical compositions, high horizons, and clear, heightened color of Japanese prints.
La Farge began his career as a painter of landscapes and figure compositions. Hewas commissioned in 1876 to decorate H. H. Richardson's Trinity Church, Boston. This was the first real mural painting in America and marks an epoch in art: he is considered the father of the American mural movement. Thereafter, he engaged primarily in mural painting and designing stained glass.
LaFarge achieved international fame for his stained glass at the 1889 Exposition Universale in Paris where he won first prize with his entry The Sealing of the Twelve Tribes. The French government offered to buy the window after the Exposition, but the window was a commission by a Buffalonian and the window was (and still is) installed in Buffalo. In 1901 he was awarded a gold medal at the Pan- American Exposition at Buffalo.
A lifelong Roman Catholic, he did much of his best work for churches. His splendid windows may be seen in the churches of Buffalo, N.Y., and Worcester, Mass., and in the chapels of Harvard and Columbia universities.
La Farge worked in many media. His watercolors and drawings are well known, particularly those commemorating his visit to the South Seas in 1886. His easel paintings are in many leading American museums. His writings and lectures on art are distinguished for their urbanity and judgment.
LaFarge's contributions to stained glass technique include the following:
1.)The development and use of opalescent glass - now generally known as American stained glass - which he first patented in 1880
2.)Incorporating molded glass embellishments into his creations, usually in the shapes of jewels or flowers
3.)Plating, the layering of glass pieces directly on top of each other to achieve detailed depth and minimize the need for painting
4.)Use of thin copper wire or foil to replace heavy lead lines, techniques that made possible the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany
