Artist John La Farge

 

John La Farge was a legend who changed the game, and he didn’t always play nice.

Born in 1835, La Farge started as a painter, dabbling in dreamy landscapes and rich, symbolic murals. His paintings were poetic, heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and his love for Japanese art—before Japanophilia was even cool. But his real claim to fame was stained glass.

Back in the late 19th century, stained glass was flat, lifeless, and frankly, a little boring. Enter La Farge, the mad scientist of color, who figured out how to layer glass to create depth, texture, and an almost psychedelic luminosity. He patented this opalescent glass technique in 1880—before his rival, Louis Comfort Tiffany, could stake a claim. His glass windows weren’t just pretty—they had soul, movement, and an ethereal glow that made churches and mansions feel downright divine.

La Farge’s work was a fever dream of symbolism, mythology, and a little bit of Catholic mysticism (despite his rocky relationship with organized religion). His murals, like the ones in Trinity Church in Boston, had the grandeur of Renaissance masterpieces but with an American boldness—think Michelangelo meets Mark Twain. He blended soft, Impressionistic light with hard, sculptural forms, making his work feel both dreamy and rock solid.

His stained glass, on the other hand, was like looking into another dimension. Rich blues and fiery reds bled into each other like living watercolors, capturing light in a way that had never been done before. He didn’t just design windows—he created portals to the divine.

Unfortunately, genius doesn’t always equate to financial success. John La Farge died in 1910, penniless but artistically undefeated. Louis Tiffany stole his ideas, marketed the hell out of them, and made a ton of money and fame in the bargain.

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