Quest of Beauty: Louis Comfort Tiffany

Reflecting on his artistic career at a celebration of his 68th birthday in 1916, Louis Comfort Tiffany characterized his work across various media as a lifelong “quest of beauty.”

  Few artists have been as energetic or as successful as was Tiffany (1848-1933) in establishing that aesthetic ideal in the American home. The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art presents Quest of Beauty: Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Life and Art, an exhibition that examines Tiffany’s astonishingly diverse work in the decorative arts over the course of his lifetime. Quest of Beauty will run through 2008. 

The exhibition features about 100 objects from the Morse Museum’s comprehensive Tiffany collection. These range from silver-and-ivory cuff links he wore, to important leaded-glass windows eventually installed at Laurelton Hall, his Long Island estate and the most extensive personal project of his career. The museum’s collection of objects from Laurelton Hall was featured in a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from November 2006 through May 2007. And the five windows from Laurelton Hall have not been on view here for more than two years.

Quest of Beauty is organized into five major phases of Tiffany’s life: his early years as a painter; the decade in which he established himself as a decorator to New York’s upper class; his evolution as a master designer of interiors and objects at the end of the 19th century; the start the 20th century, when his business expanded and he achieved status as an international star in the decorative arts; and his years in retirement amid the changing tastes of the time. 

Museum hours, November through April: Fri., 9:30 am-8:00 pm; Tues. through Thurs. and Sat., 9:30 am to 4:00 pm; Sun., 1:00-4:00 pm. Regular admission: $3 adults, $1 students, free for children under 12. Free admission Fridays, 4:00-8:00 pm. S

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum, 445 N. Park Ave., Winter Park; 407.645.5311; morsemuseum.org.