The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that they have acquired a beautiful three-part Tiffany window called Garden Landscape. The window is over ten feet wide and almost seven feet tall, and was created by Agnes Northrop. The artwork is based on a signed design drawing for the center panel that is already part of The Met’s collection. Gallery goers will have to wait until November 2024 to see it however, as it isn’t planned to be installed until then as part of the Museum’s American Wing 100th anniversary. Once finished it will be dramatically framed by the columns from Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s Long Island country estate.

The window was originally commissioned for Linden Hall, a grand Tudor-Revival estate that was built in 1912 in Dawson, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh businesswoman and philanthropist Sarah Cochran personally requested the subject of the window, which represents a lush landscape and garden similar to ones at the estate. The window was placed on the stair landing of the house to beckon visitors up the grand staircase.

Northrop started working at Tiffany’s in the 1880s, and quickly became one of the preeminent designers at the luxury house. She was known for her stained glass windows, which usually featured landscapes and gardens. She also designed several silk lampshades and other works of art. She was well known for standing out in a field dominated by men, and even won a prestigious award at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.

Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, said in a press release that “This extraordinary evocation of a garden landscape is Northrop’s masterpiece. Made during the height of Louis Tiffany’s career, it was conceived, commissioned, and crafted by women. Featuring flowers in bloom from spring through summer, seen in the enigmatic light of approaching twilight, the window presents a luxuriant garden perennially in bloom.”

Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing at The Met, added “Northrop’s remarkable environmental work further strengthens our representation of women artists in the American Wing and allows us to share broader stories of early-20th-century culture with our visitors.”

Considered to be a piece of American Impressionism, Northrop’s work merges beautiful imagery with chromatic light. The textures, lush colors and light effects truly make this piece of work a masterpiece that is a treat for the eyes. The piece was only possible with Tiffany’s special Favrile glass made at his furnaces in Corona, Queens which gives it a unique quality. The selection of glass, as well as the cutting of it, was completed by Tiffany’s skilled artisans, who were also largely women. The window was so important, that Tiffany elected to put it on public view in his New York showroom before shipping it to Cochran’s Pennsylvania home.

Image: Three-part Garden Landscape window for Linden Hall, Designed by Agnes F. Northrop (1857–1953), Tiffany Studios (1902–32), New York, 1912. Provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.