“Tiffany at Lafayette” catalogue
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). These two windows are now installed in Skillman Library.
Tiffany at Lafayette, a lavishly illustrated catalog celebrates this magnificent Tiffany legacy at the College with essays by three Tiffany scholars and a description of the restoration of the two windows. The four essays discuss different aspects of Lafayette’s windows.
1. Lafayette’s Legacy in Tiffany Glass, Elizabeth De Rosa
2. The Tiffany Windows at Lafayette College: Paintings in color and light, Lindsy R. Parrott
3. Intimate Blending: Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Life and Art, Jennifer Perry Thalheimer
4. Tiffany Rekindled: Restoration of Lafayette’s Great Windows, Richard Prigg
Funding for the publication of the catalog has been most generously provided by Arthur ’55 and Barbara Rothkopf and David ’78 and HelenBeth Vilcek ’79
Description:
Independent curator Elizabeth De Rosa, who writes about Louis C. Tiffany’s American patrons and his place within the wider European art nouveau movement, discusses the historical and art historical context of Lafayette’s windows.
Louis C. Tiffany’s windows and lamps are widely admired and celebrated, but what makes these works so special? Lindsy R. Parrott’s essay explores the new types of glass and innovative fabrication techniques Tiffany used to “paint” with color and light. The essay is extensively illustrated with examples from the Lafayette windows. Parrott is Director and Curator, The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York,
Jennifer Perry Thalheimer’s essay examines Louis C. Tiffany’s creative activities and his home and family life during the period (1886-1904) of his second marriage to Louise Wakeman Knox, daughter of Lafayette College president James Hall Mason Knox—a particularly productive time for the artist. Thalheimer, Curator and Collection Manager, The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, Florida.
Richard Prigg discusses the restoration work performed by Willet Hauser Stained Glass, Philadelphia, 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. Prigg, now proprietor Sycamore Studio Stained Glass, Landsdowne, Pennsylvania, was studio manager at Willet Hauser during the restoration
Tiffany at Lafayette
March 2016
84 pages, soft cover
ISBN 978-0-9765162-1-7
Catalog copyright © 2016 Lafayette College. All rights reserved.
Published by Special Collections & Archives and Williams Center Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania
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