John La Farge 1835-1910

By Jess Anderson

John La Farge, Spring, 1901-1902, Stained Glass, 254 x 176.5 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The life of John La Farge, born March 31st, 1835, is one marked by wealth and privilege, but also of innovation and graft. Born to a family of wealthy French immigrants, La Farge grew up in New York City, where he was given a rigorous education. He dabbled in art from a young age, given drawing lessons by his grandfather and training in watercolour technique from an unnamed English artist. He attended St Mary’s College in Maryland, where he studied law, but after graduating travelled to Paris, where his family connections allowed him entry to elite literary and artistic spheres. Having experimented with oil painting in college, La Farge was confident in his exploration of different mediums, which allowed him to venture into murals and work with stained glass. 

In Europe, La Farge tended to work independently, though he was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite work which he saw during his time in England. Due to his father’s ailing health, La Farge returned to New York, where he rented a studio in New York’s Tenth Street Studio, where he met architect Richard Morris Hunt. This interaction led La Farge to Newport, Rhode Island, where he studied painting with the architect’s brother, William Morris Hunt. As an easel painter, La Farge was associated with the Society of American Artists, who were composed of young, progressive artists who rejected the principles of the National Academy of Design. However, La Fage was also a member of the Academy and wanted to maintain good relations so that his work could be distributed and exhibited to a wider audience. This conflict of interest is perhaps expressed in the hybridity of his work with murals and stained glass. 

Throughout the 1860’s La Farge painted landscapes and figure compositions, adopting stylistic elements from radical French landscape and Japanese prints, which he collected. In 1876 he ventured into mural painting and was given a commission to decorate the interior of Trinity Church in Boston. Ascension, 1887, is considered amongst his best murals and can be seen in the Church of Ascension in New York City. Notably, La Farge decorated the homes of William Watts Sherman and Cornelius Vanderbilt II. His innovative invention of opalescent glass and imaginative design awarded him international recognition. 

In his later life La Farge enjoyed travelling, and was able to pay the salaries of those who worked on his glass and mural projects through writing. A series of watercolour scenes were the product of his travels to Japan and the South Pacific which he undertook in the late 1880’s. Alongside writing, he also lectured intermittently on art matters, though this did not prevent him from entering fiscal difficulties as he aged as he continued to take on large commissions despite declining health. 

John La Farge died in Rhode Island in 1910 at the age of seventy-five having established himself as an individual who revived the practice of stained glass in American art spheres.

Bibliography

National Gallery of Art, “John La Farge”, Collection, March 28, 2023, https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1446.html

Britannica, “John La Farge”, Biography, March 28, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-La-Farge