Exhibition Guide
Designer: Frank Brangwyn, Manufacturer: Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Corona, New York, 1892-1900. Window: Baptism of Christ. c.1897. Baltimore Museum of Art, Gift of Herman and Rosa L. Cohen, and Ben and Zelda G. Cohen, BMA 1979.5
Window: Baptism of Christ
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Mario Harley Reflects on This Baptism Scene
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Art Object Info
The Baptism of Christ window was designed in the late 1890s by Frank Brangwyn, a largely self-taught but well-traveled Anglo-Welsh artist. In 1895, Brangwyn had been commissioned to decorate the exterior of a Parisian art gallery owned by art dealer Siegfried Bing, who became Louis Comfort Tiffany’s exclusive distributor in Europe in 1894 and brought Brangwyn into Tiffany’s cadre of designers. By that time, Tiffany had already produced windows by avant-garde French artists including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and Félix Vallotton.
The BMA window incorporates some of the extraordinary varieties of glass for which Tiffany’s glass-making factory in Corona, New York was renowned. Multiple layers of glass secured by intricate systems of leading create a wide range of subtle colors and textures. Although The Baptism of Christ won a medal at the Paris Salon in 1898 and was shown the following year in an exhibition orchestrated by Bing at London’s Grafton Galleries, it never sold. After Tiffany’s death, Joseph Briggs, whose gilt mantelpiece is on view in this gallery, oversaw the liquidation of the firm’s remaining assets. Herman and Ben Cohen, the liquidators, retained the window; the family later donated it to the BMA.
Window: Baptism of Christ
The Baptism of Christ window was designed in the late 1890s by Frank Brangwyn, a largely self-taught but well-traveled Anglo-Welsh artist. In 1895, Brangwyn had been commissioned to decorate the exterior of a Parisian art gallery owned by art dealer Siegfried Bing, who became Louis Comfort Tiffany’s exclusive distributor in Europe in 1894 and brought Brangwyn into Tiffany’s cadre of designers. By that time, Tiffany had already produced windows by avant-garde French artists including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and Félix Vallotton.
The BMA window incorporates some of the extraordinary varieties of glass for which Tiffany’s glass-making factory in Corona, New York was renowned. Multiple layers of glass secured by intricate systems of leading create a wide range of subtle colors and textures. Although The Baptism of Christ won a medal at the Paris Salon in 1898 and was shown the following year in an exhibition orchestrated by Bing at London’s Grafton Galleries, it never sold. After Tiffany’s death, Joseph Briggs, whose gilt mantelpiece is on view in this gallery, oversaw the liquidation of the firm’s remaining assets. Herman and Ben Cohen, the liquidators, retained the window; the family later donated it to the BMA.