Louis Comfort Tiffany started out as a painter, but
soon turned to the decorative arts at the suggestion
of a silver designer at Tiffany & Co., the famous
purveyor of stationary, jewelry, and other “fancy goods”
founded in New York in 1837 by the artist’s father, Charles
Tiffany. In 1879, he established the interior design firm
Associated Artists with three colleagues whose specialties
complemented his own: carved wood and furniture; fabrics,
wall and ceiling papers; and textile design. This range of
expertise allowed the firm to achieve its objective of designing every aspect of the well-to-do home—from
fixtures and floors to woodwork and wallpaper. The firm
was dissolved in 1883, but Tiffany maintained his interest in
designing “total environments.” One of his most ambitious
projects was the interior of the New York City residence of
the sugar magnate H.O. Havemeyer (1847-1907). The project,
begun in 1888, took four years to complete.
Henry O. Havemeyer and his wife,
Louisine, were avid collectors
of both fine and decorative art,
particularly nineteenth-century
French paintings and Tiffany glass.
When the Havemeyer family and
their collections outgrew their
original home in Manhattan, they
decided to build anew on the corner
of Fifth Avenue and East 66th Street. They turned to Tiffany and Samuel
Colman (1832-1920), one of his
partners from Associated Artists,
to design the interior, giving them
a virtually unlimited budget and
complete artistic freedom. The
Havemeyers’ only requests were that
their home be “original” and that it
provide a sympathetic environment
for the display of their immense
collections. They were rewarded with
a floor to ceiling design program
that combined into a harmonious
and sumptuous whole a profusion
of different styles (Japanese, Chinese,
Islamic, Byzantine, Celtic, Viking),
textures, and exotic materials. Most
of the elements were fabricated at
Tiffany’s own Tiffany Glass and
Decorating Co., where skilled artisans
created lighting fixtures, fabrics,
hand-blocked wallpapers, rugs, glass
mosaics, and cast bronze objects. The
finished product both housed an art
collection and was a work of art in
its own right.
Developed with support from the Institute of Museum and LibraryServices, the Getty Foundation, and other generous donors.