Description
Stained Glass Window
John La Farge
Circa 1887
This luminous stained glass window exemplifies the artistic and technical mastery of John La Farge, one of the most innovative figures in American art of the late 19th century. Its striking geometric composition and jewel-toned palette reveal La Farge’s revolutionary approach to color and light that made him one of Tiffany’s most important contemporaries and rivals.
This window was likely created for St. Paul’s Universalist Church in Chicago, demolished in 1963 and well-known for its La Farge windows. The absence of overt religious iconography reflects the intellectual and humanistic values central to Unitarian thought, allowing La Farge to explore the purely visual power of stained glass.
La Farge was among the first American artists to elevate stained glass from a craft to a fine art form. Dissatisfied with the flatness of traditional painted glass, he developed and patented techniques that layered opalescent glass to create subtle variations of tone and texture. Along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, La Farge’s innovations transformed the medium, giving rise to a new American era of glass that spurred the nation’s cultural awakening during the Gilded Age. Today, La Farge’s stained glass windows are represented in the collections of major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
45 1/2″ high x 24 3/8″ wide x 6 1/2″ deep
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