The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art | Morse Museum Special Exhibitions

November 6, 2007 through 2008:
One of the most basic approaches to any artist is biographical, a study that involves looking at a lifetime’s work from the perspective of the facts of that life. Alongside some of the main known facts of Tiffany’s life, this exhibition presents some of the personal objects Tiffany owned, various records and awards, and many of his artistic creations to provide an appreciation that biography can bring to art. Objects will range from an 1865 sketch album from 17-year-old Tiffany’s first visit to Europe to silver-and-ivory cuff links used by the artist to a few works from the most extensive personal project of his career, the country estate he built on Long Island between 1902 and 1905. The Morse Museum’s collection of objects from that estate, Laurelton Hall, were exhibited in a major six-month exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Morse, ran from Nov. 21, 2006 to May 20, 2007.

ORIENTALISM — AN EYE FOR THE EXOTIC
August 15, 2007 through August 2008:
In the nineteenth century, technology, trade, and politics opened exotic locations to both travel and the imagination. Artists were already captivated by Japanese art and design, and the phenomenon called Orientalism added a focus on other Eastern cultures, including such places as Iran (Persia), Turkey, Algeria, and India. In homes and galleries, imported objects from exotic lands mingled with European and American versions of Oriental art, designs, scenes, and life. This vignette presents objects, including vases from Tiffany Studios and Rookwood Pottery, collected by Hugh and Jeannette McKean that richly express this late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century exoticism in art and design.

VIEW OF OYSTER BAY
Now on view:
Louis Comfort Tiffany designed this window for the Manhattan home of silk industry scion William C. Skinner whose family home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was named Wistariahurst. It has long been called View of Oyster Bay, however, because the scene so closely resembles views from the north shore of Long Island, New York, where Tiffany built his grand country estate Laurelton Hall between 1902 and 1905. In 1978, Hugh and Jeannette McKean gave the loggia from Laurelton Hall to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for installation in the light-filled space of the American Wing’s Charles Engelhard Court. At the same time, the McKeans made an extended loan of View of Oyster Bay to the Metropolitan. For almost thirty years, both the Laurelton Hall loggia and this masterfully crafted landscape window have been exhibited together and viewed by millions of appreciative visitors. Today, while the Metropolitan undertakes major renovations of the Charles Engelhard Court, we at the Morse are pleased to present View of Oyster Bay to our Winter Park visitors.

Resources

SECRETS OF TIFFANY GLASSMAKING
Ongoing:
Tiffany and his studio staff of chemists, designers, and glass technicians possessed extraordinary ability in controlling and exploiting the properties of molten sand for the sake of art. This teaching exhibit on the glass techniques employed at Tiffany Studios will explain everything from the basic ingredients used in making glass to the design processes used to create the famed leaded-glass windows and lamps. The exhibit will show some of the various tools used in glassmaking as well as window fragments, glass fragments, preliminary drawings and a model for a window.

Resources
View Exhibition Gallery Guide (PDF) >>