Tiffany at Lafayette

At the turn of the last century, two superb art glass windows were commissioned for Lafayette College from Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in New York City—Alcuin and Charlemagne (1898) for Pardee Hall and The Death of Sir Philip Sidney (1899) for Van Wickle Memorial Library (now Van Wickle Hall). For the last decade, ever since these two windows were successfully restored and installed in Skillman Library, the Lafayette College Art Galleries and Skillman Library’s Special Collections have wanted to host a proper celebration of the magnificent Tiffany legacy at Lafayette College. This spring, with the assistance of some remarkably generous Lafayette alumni, we are able to offer a trio of exhibitions and an array of programs to celebrate this legacy.

Exhibits

Neustadt_Well by Fence

Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color
Williams Center Gallery, March 4–June 4, 2016

Organized by the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York, the exhibition is comprised of windows, lamps, and a large selection of loose glass pieces that illustrate Tiffany’s masterful use of opalescent glass to achieve painterly results. These objects are some of the company’s most iconic and celebrated, chosen because they exemplify the rich and varied glass palette, sensitive color selection, and intricacy of design characteristic of Tiffany’s leaded-glass art.

Curator Lindsy R. Parrott, Director
Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York

Exhibition made possible by the generous support of Ellen Kravet Burke, Lafayette Class of 1976, and Ray Burke, Lafayette Class of 1975, in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Larry Kravet, Floral Park, New York

 

 #####

PardeeAuditorium

The Tiffany Legacy at Lafayette
Simon Room, Skillman Library, February–July, 2016

Materials from the Lafayette Archives document the four Tiffany Studios windows owned by the College; the loss of two by fire; the restoration of the two now installed in Skillman; and the family connection to Tiffany, whose second wife, Louise Wakeman Knox, was the daughter of Lafayette President James Hall Mason Knox.

Exhibition made possible by the generous support of Stephen Parahus, Lafayette Class of 1984

 #####

The Perilous & Thrilling Adventures of the Good Ship Molly-Polly Chunker Lass Gallery, Skillman Library, February–July, 2016

Photographs and excerpts from the log of the Molly-Polly Chunker offer a glimpse of the pre-wedding boating party of Louis Tiffany and Louise Knox and friends aboard a mule-drawn barge on Pennsylvania’s Delaware and Lehigh Canals from Bristol to Mauch Chunk in 1886.

Images courtesy of the National Canal Museum, an affiliate of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, Easton, Pennsylvania

Exhibition made possible by the generous support of Philip D. Wolfe, Lafayette Class of 1957

 ######

Events

Friday, March 4|
Brown Bag, Noon, Oechsle 224 (lunch provided)

Glen-Cook-CMoG

“Glass Science: Shedding Light on the Artist’s Palette”
Glen Cook, Chief Scientist
The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York

The expressive power of glass as an artistic medium has roots in the material’s fundamental chemistry and physics. Cook will discuss how, over 3,500 years, humans have harnessed extreme temperatures to transform humble rocks into masterpieces of color, clarity, and form, and into the high-tech devices so ubiquitous in today’s culture.

Co-sponsored by the Division of Engineering; IDEAL Center for Innovation; and the Departments of Art, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering

######

Friday, March 4
Lecture and opening reception, 4:30 p.m., Williams Center 108 & Gallery
Neustadt-Wisteria Lamp_det

“Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light”
Lindsy R. Parrott, Director
The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York

Louis C. Tiffany’s windows and lamps are widely admired and celebrated, but what is it that makes these works so special? How are they different from other works in stained glass? This illustrated lecture will answer these questions by exploring the new types of glass and innovative fabrication techniques Tiffany used to “paint” with color and light.

######

Wednesday, April 6 “Tiffany at Lafayette” Symposium Lecture, 4:10 p.m., Williams Center 108

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

“Intimate Blending: Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Life and Art”
Jennifer Perry Thalheimer, Curator and Collection Manager, The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, Florida

The period (1886-1904) of Louis C. Tiffany’s second marriage to Louise Wakeman Knox, daughter of Lafayette College president James Hall Mason Knox, was particularly productive for the artist. Thalheimer will examine Tiffany’s creative activities during this time as well as his home and family life.

######

“Tiffany at Lafayette” Symposium Lecture and Dessert Reception, 7:30 p.m., Gendebien Room, Skillman Library & Simon Room

Sir Philip Sidney, 1899, detail. Photo: David W. Coulter

Sir Philip Sidney, 1899, detail. Photo: David W. Coulter

“Creating Character: Tiffany Windows for Colleges”
Elizabeth De Rosa, Independent Curator

De Rosa, who writes about Louis C. Tiffany’s American patrons and his place within the wider European art nouveau movement, will discuss the commissioning of Lafayette’s windows and compare them to other college commissions of Tiffany windows.

Thursday, April 7 “Tiffany at Lafayette” Symposium Brown Bag Talk, 12:15 p.m., Gendebien Room, Skillman Library (lunch provided)

#####

 

2002-04-10-AT WILLET

“Tiffany Rekindled: Restoring Lafayette’s Stained-glass Masterpieces”
Richard Prigg, Proprietor, Sycamore Studio Stained Glass, Landsdowne, Pennsylvania

Prigg will present an illustrated discussion of the restoration work performed by Willet Hauser on both the Alcuin and Charlemagne and The Death of Sir Philip Sidney windows, including descriptions of the different structure of each window, and various problem-solving methods used to re-create missing plates and areas of the windows where the glass had chemically decomposed.

Co-sponsored by the IDEAL Center for Innovation

######

Sunday, April 10
Lecture, 3:00 p.m., College Hill Presbyterian Church
501 Broadhead Street, Easton, Pennsylvania

2472087440_31673f9590_o

“Louis C. Tiffany and the Art of Commemoration”
Patricia C. Pongracz, Executive Director
Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, Morristown, New Jersey

This illustrated lecture will examine the commemorative work of Tiffany Studios, including memorial windows for churches and synagogues and windows and other decorations created for mausoleums, such as mosaics, fine metalwork, and furniture. College Hill Presbyterian’s Tiffany window, donated by the Gerstell family in the 1920s, will also be featured.

Co-sponsored by College Hill Presbyterian Church and Chautauqua of the Forks of the Delaware, Easton

Special Collections and College Archives
David Bishop Skillman Library
710 Sullivan Road
Lafayette College
Easton, PA 18042-1797
archives.lafayette.edu | archives@lafayette.edu
(610) 330–5418
Skillman Library exhibit hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

Williams Center Gallery
Williams Center for the Arts
317 Hamilton Street
Easton, PA 18042-1768
(610) 330- 5361
galleries.lafayette.edu | artgallery@lafayette.edu

Williams Center Gallery hours:

Monday–Friday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Thursday 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
Saturday, Sunday 12 p.m.-5 p.m.

Lafayette College Art Galleries and EPI receive state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.