Introduction

About 1876 . . . demands upon him for decoration led him to the careful observation of ancient stained glass, with a view to providing the modern world with something which might be to it what the windows of Reims Cathedral and Fairford Church were to the Middle Ages.

—Critic Russell Sturgis, "John La Farge," Scribner's Magazine, July 1899

Around 1876, John La Farge's interests in the decoration of architectural interiors led him to the study of historical stained glass, which would ever after fascinate him. His inventions in colored glass would represent La Farge's greatest creative achievement—and his breakthrough in this time-honored medium arguably stands as one of the most important and influential achievements of any artist of the nineteenth century.

For his work in glass, La Farge found models not in medieval types but in Japanese designs, which he admired and collected himself in ceramics, metalwork, prints and paintings. "Impressionistic" would seem an unlikely description to apply to any work created by artisans in rigidly structured, segmented, jig-saw-puzzle-like glass patterns, but the term aptly applies to this, La Farge's most experimental window design, which deliberately evokes a delicate Japanese ink and watercolor painting mounted on silk.

Let's explore La Farge's innovative, painterly use of transparent colored glass and his unprecedented translation of lyrical Japanese design motifs into a window for a modern Victorian-era interior.