TIFFANY, Louis Comfort [1848-1933] -- American artist

Son of Charles Lewis and Harriet Olivia (Young) Tiffany; grandson of Comfort and Chloe (Draper) Tiffany, and of Ebenezer and Anna (Burnett) Young, and a descendant of "Squire" Humphrey Tiffany, who came to this country from England about 1060 and settled in Massachusetts. He studied art in New York under George Inness and Samuel Coleman, and in Paris under Leon Bailly. He painted in oil and water-colors, making a specialty of Oriental scenes.

His other important art works include the Tiffany Chapel exhibited at the Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893, which was placed in the crypt of the New York Cathedral of St. John the Divine; and the electric fountain at the Pan-American exposition, Buffalo, N.Y., 1901. He discovered a new formula for making decorative glass, known as Tiffany Favrile glass. In 1879 he established a decorative and art glassware business known as the Tiffany Glass and Decorating company, of which he was president and art director, and which became the leading American house in the manufacture of decorative window and other church decorations. He established and controlled the Tiffany Furnaces at Corona, L.I., and he became art director of the Allied Arts company; 2d vice-president and trustee of Tiffany & Company; was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1871 and academician in 1880; a member of the Society of American Artists; the American Water Color society; the New York Society of Fine Arts; the Architectural League; a member of Société Nationale des Beaux Arts; a member of the Imperial Society of Fine Arts, Tokio, Japan. He received a gold medal and decoration of chevalier of the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1900. He was married first, May 15, 1872, to Mary Woodbridge, daughter of Levi Hart and Mary Woodbridge (Perkins) Goddard, Norwich, Conn. (died, Jan. 22, 1884), and secondly, Nov. 9, 1886, to Louise Wakeman, daughter of the Rev. J. H. Mason and Louise (Wakeman) Knox of Philadelphia, Pa. BDNA  
 

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