Peacocks+and+Peonies

Date: 1882
 * [[image:http://americanart.si.edu/images/1936/1936.12.1_1c.jpg align="center" link="http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=14198"]] || Title: **Peacocks and Peonies I**

Artist: **John La Farge** Born: New York, New York 1835 Died: Providence, Rhode Island 1910

Medium: stained glass window frame: 112 x 51 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (284.5 x 130.3 x 16.5 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Henry A. La Farge

Accession: 1936.12.1

[|High Resolution Image] || Date: 1882
 * [[image:http://americanart.si.edu/images/1936/1936.12.2_1c.jpg align="center" link="http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=14199"]] || Title: **Peacocks and Peonies II**

Medium: **John La Farge** Born: New York, New York 1835 Died: Providence, Rhode Island 1910

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Medium: stained glass window <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">frame: 112 x 51 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (284.5 x 130.3 x 16.5 cm) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Smithsonian American Art Museum <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Gift of Henry A. La Farge

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Accession: 1936.12.2 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|High Resolution Image] || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">La Farge's stained-glass windows reflect the Gilded Age fascination with medieval art and craftsmanship. The industrial revolution had made inexpensive, mass-produced glass available to anyone, but art glass remained an emblem of wealth and good taste. These windows were commissioned by Frederick Lothrop Ames, a railroad magnate who had them installed in the vast, baronial hall of his Boston house.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Exhibition Label: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The tail feathers of the peacocks are made of bits of glass in the "broken jewel" technique; each peony blossom is a single piece of glass molded to catch the light differently through the day. La Farge layered his colored glass as a painter would build glazes of colors to achieve the right shade. For the composition, he borrowed from many cultures: the central panels with the bird and flower motif evoke Chinese and Japanese screens; the lower panels emulate Pompeian architecture; and the transoms above recall the tympanum above the door to a Romanesque cathedral.


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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Artist Biography] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAAM Collections Page (I) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAAM Collections Page (II) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Links: **