By Susan Jacobson, Class of 2008
Many cities and towns in the US have examples of Tiffany artwork, and Chicago in particular is proud of our Tiffany creations. But Tiffany’s Dream Garden is unique to the city of Philadelphia.
One of the largest pieces of Tiffany work in the world, Dream Garden is a 15 × 49-foot favrile glass mosaic created by the Tiffany Studios in 1916. The mosaic is housed in the Curtis Center, a downtown office building, located just a block away from Independence Hall.
The Curtis Center was built in 1910 to serve as the home of Curtis Publishing, best known for The Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal. The building was designed by Edgar Viguers Seeler in the popular Beaux Arts style. Edward Bok, senior editor of Curtis Publishing at the time, had commissioned artist Maxfield Parrish to paint a series of panels in the dining room on the building’s top floor. He then turned his attention to a large blank white wall in the lobby of the building, an ideal space for a mural. He recalled seeing a Tiffany glass mosaic in Mexico City and convinced Tiffany to agree to a partnership to produce a mosaic for the space. After a long search, Bok commissioned Parrish to come up with a sketch, despite the fact that Parrish had never worked with glass or mosaics.
Maxfield Parrish was one of the most popular artists of the early 20th century. In fact, Norman Rockwell, whose work often graced the cover of Curtis Publishing’s Saturday Evening Post, considered him a mentor, and once referred to Parrish as “my idol.” At the time Parrish was best known for his illustrations for children’s books and magazine covers. He later turned his attention to designing large scale murals and landscapes, and developed a process of alternating transparent oil paint with varnish to add the illusion of light to his landscapes. Like Tiffany, Parrish became well known for the vibrancy of his colors.
Dream Garden represents the only known collaboration between Parrish and Tiffany and has been called one of the major artistic collaborations of the early 20th century. It seemed an ideal partnership. Parrish was known for dreamy fantastic landscapes bathed in clear otherworldly light; Tiffany was the acknowledged master of art glass craftsmanship, particularly in the Art Nouveau style that expressed Parrish’s vision so effectively. In fact, the partnership was anything but smooth. There was a long and tumultuous process to develop the design until Tiffany finally accepted Parrish’s submission. Tiffany complained that the design sketches were technically vague, while Parrish countered that Tiffany’s translation lacked subtlety and “painterliness.”
After six months, Dream Garden was finished. The work had required 100,000 pieces of hand-fired favrile glass to achieve perfection in each of 260 different colors. Before being installed in Philadelphia, the mosaic was exhibited at Tiffany Studios in New York City. It was seen by thousands and garnered rave reviews from the New York art community. The work was then disassembled into 24 panels and carefully reassembled and installed in the lobby of the Curtis Center, a process that took six months.
Edward Bok was pleased with the Curtis Building mural. He called it “a wonderpiece, far exceeding the utmost impression of paint on canvas.”
In 1998, the mosaic was sold to casino owner Steve Wynn, who intended to move it to one of his casinos in Las Vegas. This prospect outraged local historians and art lovers who raised $3.5 million to prevent the move. The money was provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which now owns the work. Wynn’s plan brought renewed attention to Dream Garden and it has now been designated “historic object” by the city of Philadelphia.