Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport)

Art Historical Context

John La Farge's *Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows Caldwell House, Newport)* created around 1886–87, offers a glimpse into the creative process behind one of America's pioneering stained glass designs. This intimate preparatory study, measuring just 4 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches, was made for the chapel windows of Caldwell House, a Gilded Age estate in Newport, Rhode Island—a hub of opulent summer homes for the elite. La Farge, a leading figure in the American Aesthetic Movement, blended influences from Pre-Raphaelite art and Japanese techniques to evoke spiritual luminosity, perfectly suiting ecclesiastical commissions. Rendered in watercolor and gouache on white wove paper, then mounted on gray pulpboard with a cut-out "mat" of off-white laid paper, the work demonstrates La Farge's mastery of translucent effects. These media allowed him to experiment with layered colors and light transmission, mimicking the opalescent glass he championed—revolutionizing American decorative arts by introducing innovative firing techniques and iridescent surfaces. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing through the 1966 bequest of Susan Dwight Bliss, this delicate piece highlights the intersection of fine art and architecture in late 19th-century America, inviting visitors to appreciate the quiet brilliance of design studies that brought sacred scenes to life in stained glass.

About the Artist

John La Farge · 1835–1910

John La Farge (1835–1910) was born into a wealthy French émigré family in New York City, the son of John Frederick La Farge and Louisa Binsse de Saint-Victor. Educated at Jesuit institutions including Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland and St. John's College (now Fordham University), he initially pursued law but turned to art after receiving early drawing lessons from his maternal grandfather, a...