A Tiffany Drawing and the final product!

by with No Comment 19th century ArtAmerican ArtArt NouveauStudent Activities
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, 1892–1902
Design Drawing, ca. 1898–99, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 28.9 x 40.6  cm, the MET, NY
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/17504
Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848–1933
Bowl, 1898–1902, Enamel on Copper, 15.6 x 24.1 x 24.1 cm, the MET, NY https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/51.121.29/

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has in its American Wing’s Collection two items I particularly like. The first is a Watercolour Design Drawing by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company illustrating a very special copper bowl belonging to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s private collection. The second item is the actual Enamel on Copper Tiffany Bowl, lushly decorated with plums among leaves in a very organic way, shimmering and glowing…

The MET “Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2005–2006”: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 64, no. 2 (Fall, 2006) page 53, Publication has the acquisition report of the Tiffany Design Drawing with a plethora of information. We learn, for example, that it presents a large enamel bowl in the Repoussé technique. The artist of the drawing used the Watercolour medium to better represent the luminosity of purple and green translucent enamels. We also learn, through notations, the formulas for the enamel colours used by the artists, and that ten days and 50 hours of work were required to make the piece. Two names written on the paper are of particular importance. “Munson” refers to Julia Manson, the lady in charge of the Tiffany enameling workshop and “Leslie Nash,” a later addition, a Tiffany production manager and original owner of the Drawing. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Recent_Acquisitions_A_Selection_2005_2006_The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art_Bulletin_v_64_no_2_Fall_2006

Iridescent Tiffany Enamels were particularly esteemed and in high demand. The large Enamel on Copper Bowl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a rare and prized item to admire and study in order to realize high-quality craftsmanship. What I find astonishing is that the Tiffany enameling department was small, production was limited, and exclusively staffed by women artists. The first lady in charge was Patricia Gay, followed by Julia Munson, the artist of our Bowl-in-focus. As described by the sited MET publication, “The shape of the Bowl alludes to the plump, rounded form of the ripe plum. Fruit, leaves, and branches are rendered in repoussé in high relief, and the plums are so three-dimensional that they look almost as if they could be plucked off the bowl…” The MET Publication, pp.77-78, Louis Comfort Tiffany at The Metropolitan Museum of Art [adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 56, no. 1 (Summer, 1998)] is a wonderful source of information for Tiffany and his accomplishments. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Louis_Comfort_Tiffany_at_the_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art

For a Student Activity on Louis Comfort Tiffany, please… check HERE!

Repoussé: method of decorating metals in which parts of the design are raised in relief from the back or the inside of the article by means of hammers and punches; definition and detail can then be added from the front by chasing or engraving. The name repoussé is derived from the French pousser, “to push forward.” This ancient technique, which has been used extensively throughout the history of metalworking, achieved widespread popularity in Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Wondrous Birds

by with No Comment 19th century ArtArtStudent Activities
Hans Thoma, 1839–1924
Wondrous Birds, 1892, 92.4 x 74.0 cm, North Carolina Museum of Art

“A romantic realist who has devoted his life to making love to Nature and expressing it in glowing colour.” Writes Huntly Carter, for Hans Thoma, the painter of Wondrous Birds!

Born in the Black Forest area, the son of a Miller, Hans Thoma developed a keen eye for the beauty of his ancestral home. His landscapes, genre paintings, and prints have little in common with contemporary artistic styles and ideas. He is “in love” with nature, its idyllic simplicity, ethereal quality, and effortless grandeur. He created his very own, distinctive, creative manniera, close to that of the early German masters, particularly that of Albrecht Altdorfer and Lucas Cranach the Elder. His love for nature, his attention to “local” colouring, drawing and the importance of outline, his fondness for “homeland” scenery, brings him close, but not part of another group of special artists, the Pre-Raphaelites.

According to North Carolina Museum of Art “Hans Thoma painted several compositions of flying storks that are quite remarkable for the bird’s-eye viewpoint from which they are represented, almost as if the artist were flying beside them. Although Thoma was known to have been profoundly interested in symbolism and mythology, he never publicly explained the meaning or symbolism of his Wundervögel.” NCMA offers an interesting introduction to Wondrous Birds and an educational lesson plan at https://learn.ncartmuseum.org/artwork/wondrous-birds/ and https://learn.ncartmuseum.org/lesson-plans/a-birds-eye-view/

Hans Thoma, 1839–1924
Self-portrait in front of a birch forest, 1899, oil on canvas, 91 x 75.5 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Hans Thoma started his career in art, entering, in 1859, the Karlsruhe Academy under the tutelage of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Ludwig des Coudres. Visiting Paris in 1868 was the second important step he took. The great French Realist, Gustav Courbet, became his teacher, mentor and the third step to artistic maturity. In 1874 he visited Italy and fell under the spell of Renaissance Art. In 1899 Hans Thoma was named Director of the Karlsruhe Academy, his reputation was firmly established through exhibitions and his days were spent between Düsseldorf, Paris, Italy, Munich, and Frankfurt. Today, many of his paintings have found their way into museums and private collections and are widely exhibited… Scholars of 19th century Art describe him as a Romantic Realist, a member of the “German Romans” group. For more on Hans Thome and the artistic environments in 19th century Germany, please, check: German Masters of the 19th Century, Paintings and Drawings from the Federal Republic of Germany, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981, New York https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15324coll10/id/71300

“A bird’s-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans, and maps.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird%27s-eye_view

For student RWAP (Research-Writing-Art-Project) please… check HERE!