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1835 - 1910 • American • Painter/Designer • Aestheticist
"Rembrandt would be happy here [in Samoa], especially in the evenings, when the coconut -fire. .. makes a center of light." - John La Farge
La Farge grew up in New York City, where his French emigre parents provided highly cultivated, privileged surroundings. He first studied law, but a trip to Europe in 1856 changed his direction. He was briefly in COUTURE's studio, then in that of William Morris HUNT in Newport, Rhode Island. His circle of friends included artists as diverse as HOMER and BARTHOLDI, along with the lettered elite: He became good friends with Henry and William James while they, too, studied with Hunt, and the historian-philosopher Henry Adams was his travel companion. La Farge and Adams visited Japan-La Farge had already been among the first Westerners to collect Japanese art, which, along with many other styles and ideas, he absorbed and reflected-and subsequently went around the world starting from San Francisco and stopping in Hawaii, Samoa, and Tahiti. His high level of sophistication and wide range of accomplishments in a variety of mediums contribute to making La Farge essentially uncategorizable. For example, in 1861 he painted a small STILL LIFE, 22 inches high by 12 wide, Agathon to Erosanthe, A Love Wreath, based on a GREEK tradition of leaving a wreath of flowers as a token of love outside the home of the beloved. The background for this wreath appears to be a plain white wall, yet it is anything but plain or white. The paint is thickly applied, dragged roughly across the surface, and interlaced with pinks, blues, grays, and creams. Not only is the texture almost tactile, but so too is the strong light that strikes the subtly and impressionistically painted circle of flowers and laurel leaves. It is unlike any other still lifes being painted at the time. Later, La Farge led a revival of mural art in America. In 1876, the architect RICHARDSON put him in charge of the interior decoration of Trinity Church in Boston, for which he designed and executed murals as well as STAINED GLASS windows. According to legend, La Farge began experimenting with stained glass in the 1870s after noticing how light struck a blue bottle on the windowsill while he was in bed, recuperating from an illness. Although TIFFANY is often given credit, it was La Farge who invented opalescent glass-several colors fused together to create an irregular texture and expressive shadings. Flower designs were among his most beautiful glass creations, and peonies among his favorite flowers-Peonies Blown in the Wind (1878-79 ), for example. Not only is the peony rich in Oriental symbolism, but La Farge also framed his design to resemble a Japanese hanging scroll. At the same time he worked with glass, La Farge began painting in WATERCOLOR- flower and landscape studies, and cultural studies from the South Seas islands, to which he voyaged.