Window: Peonies in the Wind

Datepossibly 1889- reworked by 1908

Designer John La Farge Born New York City, New York, 1835; died Providence, Rhode Island, 1910

Label TextAround 1876, according to a friend, painter John La Farge's interests in the decoration of architectural interiors "led him to the careful observation of ancient stained glass, with a view to providing the modern world with something that might be to it what the windows of Reims Cathedral . . . were to the Middle Ages." Looking not to medieval models, however, he turned to the Japanese sources that he so admired, expanding the art of stained glass to an unprecedented compositional fluidity. "Impressionistic" might seem an unlikely description of any work created by artisans in rigidly structured, segmented glass panes, but that term aptly applies to the wind-blown peonies that La Farge portrayed in this design.

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.

Object number87.143

ProvenanceEstate of John La Farge, New York, 1910-1911; [American Art Galleries, New York, Catalogue of the Art Property. . . Estate of the Late John La Farge . . . , Mar. 29 - 31, 1911, lot no. 321 (as Peonies in the Wind. After Japanese design. Border.)]; sold to [Charles W. Kraushaar, New York], to 1947; [Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Exhibition and Sale at Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., Apr. 9 - 10, 1947, sale no. 859, lot no. 205 (consigned by the estate of J.W. Kraushaar of Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York)]; sold to [Charles T. Henry Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida], 1947-1962 (with another La Farge window in one lot); purchased from gallery by Dr. Barzillia R. Waldron, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1962-1963; sold to Melinda Pearlman, Asheville, North Carolina, 1963-1987; consigned to [Christie's, New York, Important Art Nouveau and Art Deco Glass, Nov. 21, 1987, sale no. 6500, lot no. 142 (as Peonies Blown in the Wind, with Kakemono Border and dated ca. 1893-1908, "The Property of A Lady")]; purchased at auction by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1987

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, American Fine Arts Society, Architectural League of New York, Catalogue of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Architectural League of New York in the Galleries of the American Fine Arts Society, Jan. 21 - Feb. 20, 1909. Cat. no. 397 (as Peonies in the Wind. Glass). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, Department of Fine Arts, Stained Glass Exhibition, Original Windows, Designs, Cartoons, Drawings of Medieval Windows, Nov. 13 - Dec. 16, 1922. Cat. no. 128 [lent by Kraushaar Galleries]. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Musseum of Art, The Art of American Still Life: Audubon to Warhol, Oct. 27, 2015 - Jan. 10. 2016. Text by Mark Mitchell. Cat. no. 67, pp. 188-189, reproduced pl. 67. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Art Museum, American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent, Feb. 16 - May 14, 2017. Text by Kathleen A. Foster. No cat. no., pp. 170-172, reproduced fig. 139, checklist p. 478.Published ReferencesCox, Kenyon. "Art in America: Two Specimens of La Farge's Art Glass." Burlington Magazine (June 13, 1908): 183-184, reproduced. "La Farge Sale, $17,738." New York Times, March. 11, 1911: p. 5. Weinberg, H. Barbara. "John La Farge's Peonies Blown in the Wind." Pharos '75 (July 13, 1975): p. 9, reproduced p. 11. cf. Adams, Henry, et al. John La Farge. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987; pp. 150-151, 159, n. 159. "Lafarge [sic] Window included in Christie's November 21 Sale." Antiques & The Arts Weekly, November 13, 1987: p. 64, reproduced. "Art Deco: New York, Christie's," Art and Auction (March 1988): p. 131. Reif, Rita. "Auctions; the record price at auction for a La Farge window has aroused new interest in stained glass." New York Times, December 25, 1987: p. C18, reproduced. Hackett, Regina. "Classical Glass; Seattle Art Museum Pays Top Dollar for Masterpiece." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 20, 1988: pp. C1, C6, reproduced. Ament, Delores Tarzen. "SAM PAys Record Price for Stained-Glass Window." Seattle Times, April 21, 1988: p. F1. Ament, Delores Tarzen. "Record Window; Museum's New Piece Needs Much New Repair." Seattle Times, April 25, 1988: pp. C1, C6. Hoover, Richard L. "A La Farge Masterpiece." Stained Glass Quarterly 85, no. 1 (Spring 1990): p. 52. Selected Works: Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 108, reproduced p. 109. cf. Sloan, Julie L. and James L. Yarnall. "Art of an Opaline Mind: The Stained Glass of John La Farge." American Art Journal 24, nos. 1 and 2 (1992): p. 24. Junker, Patricia. "A Sense of Place: American Art and the Seattle Art Museum." The Magazine Antiques (November 2008): p. 11, reproduced fig. 5. Foster: Kathleen. American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent. Exh. Cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2017; p. 171, reproduced fig. 139.

Credit LineAcquired with donations from The Kreielsheimer Foundation, Ann and Tom Barwick, The Virginia Wright Fund, Ann H. and John H. Hauberg, The Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund, and the American Art Purchase Fund

Dimensions56 x 26 in. (142.2 x 66 cm)

MediumLeaded glass with copper foil