"Peonies Blowing in the Wind" by JOHN LA FARGE

On exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a stained glass creation of American artist JOHN LA FARGE (1835-1910) called 
"Peonies Blowing in the Wind." Completed in 1886, the work measures 56 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches (143.51 x 67.31 cm). John La Farge, one of the most innovative and versatile American artists of the nineteenth century, achieved renown as a painter in oils and watercolors, as a magazine and book illustrator, as a muralist and designer of stained-glass windows, and as an author of articles and books on art and travel. A quintessential "Renaissance man" of the American Renaissance, he responded to and encouraged the eclectic tastes and interests of his sophisticated patrons. The work of La Farge is displayed at the American Decorative Arts Department togeether with the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, his early rival.