Vase with tulip and green leaves terminating in a white blossom

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONThis tall Tiffany glass vase resembles a tulip. Notice how the foot, stem and body have been decorated with green striations while the top resembles a blossom or bud still closed. The foot is clear glass with striations in the form of a star or five leaves.WHERE WAS IT MADE?Tiffany glass was made at the Tiffany Glass Furnaces in Corona, located in Queens, New York.WHO WAS THE ARTIST?Louis Comfort Tiffany was the eldest son of Charles L. Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Company, the New York jeweler. Tiffany was trained as a painter, studying with both George Inness and Samuel Coleman in New York and Leon Bailly in Paris. He eventually turned his attention to decorative arts and began experimenting with glass-making techniques in 1875. After success with stained glass windows and mosaics, Tiffany established the Tiffany Glass Company in 1885 and began devoting production to one-of-a-kind blown glass art objects. He soon became one of America’s most prolific designers, providing furniture, wallcoverings, textiles, jewelry and glass to some of society’s most important citizens.HOW WAS IT MADE?The form of this vase is a prime example of glass making techniques, with the blown petals formed of white glass fading into a pinkish red around the green protecting leaves of the bud.WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?This is an example of one of Tiffany’s floriform vases, resembling a flower (most likely a tulip) just about to open. Tiffany believed that nature was the true source of artistic inspiration. He was fascinated by the colors found in flowers and plants. He tried to incorporate nature into his designs, often as realistically as possible, showing flowers and plants in various stages of bloom. To see other examples of Tiffany floriform vases in the Johnson Museum’s collection, search for object numbers 64.0881 and 2001.075.003 in the keyword search box.The delicate swirling lines of this vase are typical of Tiffany’s Art Nouveau style objects. Art Nouveau, French for “New Art,” refers to an artistic style that was developed in Europe in the 1880s, and remained enormously popular into the first decade of the 20th century. It is characterized by whiplash curves, organic imagery and sinuous lines. The name Art Nouveau came from the Paris shop of Siegfried Bing that opened in 1895, quickly popularizing the works of artists like Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose work became synonymous with (or symbolic of) the American Art Nouveau style.