Louis Comfort Tiffany and Dale Chihuly
by Linda Qualls

       The art of glassmaking is a very old and respected craft.  Glass exists in as many shapes, forms, textures, and uses, as the imagination can provide. From the great chandeliers of the most opulent palaces of Europe to the very simple drinking glasses that sit on our everyday dinner tables, glass making requires talent and patience that has given birth to many skilled artists. Louis Comfort Tiffany and Dale Chihuly are both very great examples of American studio glassmakers, but Louis Comfort Tiffany has provided the ground work for studio glassmaking advancement for the future.

Louis Comfort Tiffany had the good fortune of being born into a wealthy family.  Charles Lewis Tiffany, father of Louis had a successful jewelry and goods store allowing Louis the backing and freedom to pursue his dreams.  Tiffany had the best education money could buy; he attended Eagleswood Military Academy in New Jersey, but his interest lay in the arts, so he continued his education with traveling and studying with the best artists of the time (“Master’s”).  Louis became a fine painter and colorist, but he was most interested in designing and producing decorative art.  He formed a partnership with other famous artists such as illuminist painters, textile and furniture designers.  Over time Louis started to experiment with glass.  His company was famous for their medieval stained glass.  He wanted more, so he stepped it up a notch combining colors and textures with translucence which created his famous stain glass windows.  His business made religious and figural windows for churches and landscape and floral windows for business stores. Tiffany was a great artist, but he also hired creative talents to provide ideas, concepts, and designs for his stain glass windows. Though this business was making him money he dissolved it to spend more time on what he loved the most, selling and making glass objects.  In the 1890’s Tiffany worked with master glassmakers to creator the iridescent blown glass which he patented as Favrile (“Biography”).  This invention will be Louis’ greatest accomplishment and out of this creation will come some of his famous art objects such as vases, stemware, place settings, and shades for candlesticks and oil lamps.  With the creation of the light bulb he created his famous leaded-glass lampshades.  He went on to produce metal accessories such as desk sets, clocks, and candleholders.

Dale Patrick Chihuly was born into a working class family.  His grandparents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia and Sweden. Chihuly’s father worked as a meat cutter and union leader his mother was a homemaker.  As a teenager he became a juvenile delinquent in his neighborhood in Tacoma, Washington.  Fortunately, he had the sense not to participate in anything concerned with the law.  His youth was not a happy one; his brother died in an accident while training for the Navy and a year later his father died of a heart attack.  After that he had no interest in school.  Lucky for him his mother was the driving force behind him and made him finish high school and go on to college (Chihuly).  Dale Chihuly attended many schools, worked at many jobs.  He received awards for works in Interior Design, but his love for glass-blowing overshadowed anything he did. As he said “I was obsessed with glass” (Chihuly). He then studied under the artist Harvey K. Littleton, founder of the contemporary studio-glass movement in the United States.  He continue on with schools related to glass blowing and received his M.S. and M.F.A. Wanting to expand his knowledge on glass blowing, he earned a grant from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and a Fullbright fellowship for glass study.  He then left for an island near Venice, Italy and was there for a year as an apprentice (Chihuly).

 Back, in the United States Chihuly started his own business in studio-glass. Though he lost his eye in a car accident, this did not stop him from continuing his dream. He formed a team of talented artist to assist him in his glassmaking; he still designs and oversees the work that is done.  Dale continues still today amazing people with his works of art.

Tiffany and Chihuly share many similarities in the artistic qualities expressed through their works.  One of these was that both artists took inspiration from landscape and nature and incorporated it into their work.  Taking his inspiration from the ocean, Dale created a serious of works such as “Sea Forms” and “Macchia”, whereas Tiffany took from his horticulture experience.  Tiffany used floral and landscape designs in most of his lamps and stained glass.

Both artists were always pushing the envelope of glass making.  In the beginning of the 20^th century, Tiffany’s glassware was shocking and almost unaccepted.  Chihuly’s work was conceder vulgar, brazen, and fearless (Geldzahler).  They were pioneers in their own right.  Through time and perseverance, both artists work has become sought after through the years.  Tiffany and Chihuly both owned glass studios; they also created talented teams of artist to assist in the making of their glass work, while still under their design and direction.

Even though Louis and Dale lived in different time periods their work has become the most influential in America for glassmaking.  Dale has been compare to Louis as having many of the same traits, they both worked in various styles, understood how glass worked, and they had the determination to let the world know how great their work was.

Although Tiffany and Chihuly share many of the same styles in life and art their work varies greatly in the studio-glass medium. Tiffany came from a very wealth family this gave him more of an advantage and allowed him the freedom to pursue his dreams;Chihuly grew up in a middle-class working family, but had a troubled youth. Both received education in the art of glassmaking, but their styles and techniques were very much different.  Tiffany’s work was more functional, but Chihuly was very much unfunctional. Tiffany’s work could be used in the home or office such as lamp shades, vases, clocks, candlesticks, and table sittings.  Chihuly’s work was more whimsical and fun to look at.  Even though Dale makes chandeliers, Louis’ chandeliers were more useful in the home.  Dale Chihuly’s work was a representation of abstract nature, and Louis Tiffany’s was more of a conservative representation of nature.

Both men have been recognized as the most influential artists in America. Robert T. Buck, director of the Brooklyn Museum said about Dale Chihuly, “an unquestionable genius, Dale Chihuly has become the most celebrated glassmaker in the United States since the turn of the century, when Louis Comfort Tiffany made stained glass a prominent feature of American interior design” (Chihuly). Both artist were world travelers, admired nature, painters, interior designers, inventors, and will trained in how glassmaking works.  Tiffany and Chihuly created their own unique styles of glass work, and even though different in their function both are treasured and honored around the world.  If not for the determination and talents of these artists the world may never have known that hot, droop, sagging liquid could become, a wonderful work for art and the beauty of what it can do to ones soul when looked upon.

Works Cited

“Biography of Louis Comfort Tiffany”. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist and Businessman.  27 June 2006. <http://www.albanyinstitute.org/exhibits/archive%20pages/tiffany.bio.html >.

Chihuly, Dale.  “Biography of Chihuly”.  Current Biography.  August 1995. 27 June 2006 <http://www.chihuly.com/essays/ news_currentbiography.html >.

Geldzahler, Henry. “Chihuly: Form From Fire”.  Dale Chihuly as of 1993.  1993. 7 June 2006 <http://www.chihuly.com/ essays/asof93.html  >.

“The Master’s Lodge”.  Tiffany Biography.  27 June 2006. <http://www.masterkidge.co.nz/about/history_of_the_lodge/tiffany_bio.html >.

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