Tiffany’s Gardens at Laurelton Hall by Jane Peterson

Jane Peterson
American | 1876-1965

Tiffany’s Gardens at Laurelton Hall

Oil on canvas

This magnificent oil captures the splendor of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s personal gardens by his fellow artist and friend, the renowned artist Jane Peterson. A masterpiece of grand proportions, Peterson’s impressionistic brushwork and vivid palette perfectly capture both the lushness of Tiffany’s gardens and the interplay of light and shadow across the scene.

This painting renders the loggia and surrounding gardens at Tiffany’s sprawling estate, Laurelton Hall, with tall hollyhocks in shades of pink and red set against sunlit ivy and the ordered geometry of the architecture. A departure from her modernist florals, Peterson masterfully captures each color and texture with keen naturalism, immersing her viewers in the glorious experience of Tiffany’s elaborate gardens.

Peterson’s introduction to Tiffany came through famed painter Joaquín Sorolla, with whom she studied in Spain. Around 1910, she was invited to Laurelton Hall, where Tiffany frequently gathered artists and friends to experience the 600-acre estate’s extensive gardens and art collection. Peterson’s paintings of Laurelton Hall are some of the most stunning documents of Tiffany’s gardens we have today, as much of the estate was lost to fire in 1957. Peterson and Tiffany maintained their friendship through the 1920s, and many of her touching paintings of Laurelton Hall now belong to prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Jane Peterson was a pioneering American painter whose independence and adventurous spirit set her apart in the early 20th century. Trained at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League, she broadened her artistic vision through extensive travels across Europe, North Africa and the United States, exhibiting widely and gaining international recognition. Peterson was well-known for her portraits, still lifes, travel scenes and her celebrated “flower portraits,” blending Impressionist and modernist influences with her own bold use of color. Her works are now represented in prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Circa 1911

Canvas: 39 7/8" high x 29 1/2" wide (101.28 x 74.93 cm)
Frame: 50 3/8" high x 40 1/2" wide x 2 1/2" deep (127.95 x 102.87 x 6.35 cm)

Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Sale, O. Rundle Gilbert, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1966
Private collection, acquired directly from the above
By descent in the family, New York
Private collection, New York
M.S. Rau, New Orleans