Design for “Woman in a Pergola with Wisteria” Window for Pembroke, Residence of Capt. Joseph Raphael De Lamar, Glen Cove, New York, 1910–11. Possibly Louis C. Tiffany. Transparent and opaque watercolor, and graphite on collage of translucent paper mounted on paper, mounted on paperboard with window mat. Purchase, Walter Hoving and Julia T. Weld Gifts and Dodge Fund, 1967.
This illuminating exhibition presents rarely seen drawings by the talented artists who worked in the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Intended for commissions dating from the mid-1880s through the 1920s in the U.S. and internationally, the nearly 120 luminous watercolor drawings present the first step in the artistic process for interiors and decorations for the grand mansions, civic and sacred spaces, and other buildings created during America’s Gilded Age, the post–Civil War era that saw an unprecedented accumulation of wealth.