Vase
Classification
glasswares
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Bequest of Joseph L. Morris
Accession Number
1966-55-4
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Louis Comfort Tiffany’s *Vase*, created around 1903–04, exemplifies the American artist’s mastery of glass as both functional object and luminous artwork. Tiffany, a leading figure of the Art Nouveau movement, revolutionized decorative arts by treating glass like a painter’s medium. His innovative Favrile technique produced an iridescent surface that shifts color with the light, giving this vase a living, jewel-like quality prized by collectors of the era. Housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the piece reflects the early twentieth-century fascination with natural forms and handcraft...