Tiffany Studios Mermaid Window

Six-Panel Mermaid Window
Tiffany Studios
1899

A masterwork of American design, this monumental six-panel stained glass window by Tiffany Studios stands among the most ambitious achievements of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s career. Commissioned in 1899 by Hawaiian sugar magnate James Bicknell Castle for his grand Waikiki Beach estate, Kainalu, this extraordinary work is the only privately commissioned Tiffany window ever created in the Hawaiian Islands. Conceived for the sweeping stairwell of Castle’s seaside mansion, the window is an inspired marriage of myth, light and technical mastery that captures the full creative range of Tiffany’s genius.

At the center of the composition, a radiant mermaid glides through the depths astride a sea dragon, her flowing hair and scaled tail rendered in cascades of iridescent Favrile glass. Surrounding panels adorned with seashell and marine motifs envelop the siren in a shifting symphony of light and magnificent color play. Tiffany’s pioneering technique of layering two to three sheets of opalescent, mottled and rippled glass produces extraordinary depth and color variation, transforming light itself into a painterly medium. Even the painted elements—fused permanently into the glass—are impervious to peeling or fading, preserving Tiffany’s original surface brilliance for over a century.

The mermaid composition was inspired by The Mermaid (1883) by Hudson River School painter Frederick Stuart Church, whose work deeply influenced Tiffany’s sense of color and atmosphere. Remarkably, only one other window featuring a mermaid is known from Tiffany Studios—the Mermaid with Goldfish window, which Tiffany kept in his personal collection and refused to sell. That work now resides in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Designed in perfect harmony with its original oceanside setting, this window reflected both the natural splendor of Hawaii and Castle’s stature as one of its most powerful industrialists. As a leading member of Hawaii’s “Big Five” business elite, Castle played a decisive role in the islands’ transformation from monarchy to U.S. territory. His residence was among the grandest private homes ever constructed on Waikiki Beach—a four-story architectural landmark whose interiors embodied cosmopolitan refinement. Unlike most Tiffany windows that have been lost or fragmented, this one was carefully preserved when Castle’s mansion was demolished in 1959. It has since remained in distinguished private collections, a rare survival of monumental Tiffany glass in private hands.

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) revolutionized decorative arts in the United States through his mastery of glassmaking, pioneering the use of iridescent Favrile glass, patented in 1894. His windows transformed architectural spaces into living artworks and secured his place as one of America’s foremost designers. Today, Tiffany’s works are preserved by institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, and they continue to achieve record results at international auction houses.

Overall with light box: 8’ 11” high x 10’ 5” wide x 10 1/2” deep (271.78 x 317.50 x 26.67 cm)

Provenance:
James Bicknell Castle, Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach, U.S. Territory of Hawaii (1899–1918)
Mrs. Castle, by descent from the above (1918–1920)
Elks Lodge 616, Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach, U.S. Territory of Hawaii (1920–1959)
Private Collection, Honolulu, Hawaii (1959–1987)
Private Collection, Colorado

Exhibitions:
Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Teisen Art Museum, Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany, January 12–March 17, 1991; traveled to:
Kobe, Kobe City Museum, April 6–May 12, 1991
Nagoya, Electricity Museum Gallery, May 18–June 23, 1991
Toyama, Toyama Citizens Plaza, June 30–July 26, 1991
(Expanded version of the exhibition originally organized by the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery and The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, , September 24, 1998–January 4, 1999 (Sponsored by Tiffany & Co.)
Simi Valley, California, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, The Spirit of Tiffany, November 27, 1999–March 19, 2000
Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Couleurs et Lumière, September 16, 2009–January 10, 2010; traveled to:
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Tiffany Glass: A Passion for Colour, February 12–May 2, 2010
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Tiffany: Color and Light, May 29–August 15, 2010, no. 60

Literature:
The American Architect and Building News, June 28, 1902, illustrated in residence, p. 103
Don Hibbard and David Franzen, The View from Diamond Head: Royal Residence to Urban Resort, Honolulu, 1986, illustrated in residence, p. 35
Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Tokyo Metropolitan Teisen Art Museum, 1991, illustrated pp. 44–45 (detail)
Robert Jay, The Architecture of Charles W. Dickey, Honolulu, 1992, pp. 59–60
Constance Schwartz and Franklin Hill Perrell, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Stanford White and Their Circle, New York, 1998, p. 15, illustrated p. 1 (color)
Holly J. Walcott, “Simi Under Glass,” Los Angeles Times, November 25, 1999
Jake Finch, “Exhibit Captures Spirit of Tiffany,” Ventura County Star, November 26, 1999, illustrated
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tiffany Windows, 1999 Calendar, December
Rosalind M. Pepall et al., Tiffany Glass: A Passion for Colour, Paris, 2009, p. 94, illustrated p. 100 (color)