Armchair (c. 1891–93): Art, History and Details

Armchair (c. 1891–93) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933); Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company (America, New York, 1892–1902).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Louis Comfort Tiffany began his artistic career as a painter, having studied with George Innes and Samuel Colman in America as well as with various artists in Paris. While he achieved some early success with his orientalist works, his interests were soon drawn to interior furnishings and design. He collaborated with other artisans to form Associated Artists in 1879 and began work on major commissions such as the Mark Twain House (1881) and the White House for President Chester Arthur (1882). He debuted designs for furniture at the 1893 Chicago world's fair, and this armchair is believed to have been among those pieces. Even after he achieved enormous success with his glass production, Tiffany continued to produce interior furnishings and design schemes for artistic interiors throughout the rest of his career.

Object facts

• Title: Armchair
• Date: c. 1891–93
• Creator attribution: Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933); Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company (America, New York, 1892–1902)
• Culture: America, New York
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: Primavera with inlays of brass and various woods
• Dimensions: Overall: 82.9 x 63.2 x 64.3 cm (32 5/8 x 24 7/8 x 25 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1990.91

A detail from the museum

Embellished with elaborate carved flowers and inlaid wooden mosaics, this armchair repeats many of the motifs found in Tiffany’s lamps.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hawley, Henry. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.