| Tiffany Windows Are the Star Attractions at the Morse Museum in Winter Park |
|
|
| December 17, 2009 |
|
The holiday season is a lovely time of year in Winter Park, where the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art lights up its Tiffany windows and puts on a string of concerts that continues into early spring.
The Morse Museum is home to the world’s largest and most renowned collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany pieces. Tiffany believed that nature should be the primary source of artistic inspiration. According to the Morse’s website, he was “intoxicated by color… which he translated into glass” using the lush palette found in flowers and plants."
It therefore seems quite fitting to me that these spectacularly colorful pieces are now in the verdant and lush Central Florida region. Of particular interest are a series of nine windows he created for a private respite home and the interiors he designed for a chapel at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Eight of the nine windows from the respite home are infused with religious themes. One of them, titled "Christmas Eve," is the highlight. This window, which dates from 1902, features an iconic “Father Christmas” figure holding the baby Jesus. The McKean family, founders of the Museum, saved these windows from demolition or relocation in 1979.
The Morse's Tiffany collection has tremendous depth, too. According to the Museum’s website, “the collection includes fine examples in every medium Tiffany explored, in every series of work he produced, and from every period of his life.” It's been referred to as "the most comprehensive and most interesting collection of Tiffany anywhere" by curators from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
I raise my cup and thank the McKean family for preserving these treasures.
- - - - - - - - - -
On Christmas Eve, the Morse plans a special Celebration and Open House from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Raintree Chamber Players will perform from 1 to 4 p.m.
The museum hosts evening concerts in the galleries through April:
Friday Night Concert Series
Jan. 8 – Pianist Lynn Peghiny
Feb. 12 – Beautiful Music Jazz Trio (flute, guitar, and acoustic bass)
March 12 – Celtic Crossings (Celtic harp, flute and violin)
April 9 – Beautiful Muse Duo (classical guitar and flute)
|
|
|
|
|
 Forward to a Friend |
|
|
|
| Christmas Eve by Louis Comfort Tiffany, circa 1902 |
| Credit: Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art |
|
|
|
|
Post a Comment