An Artist's Letters from Japan

by John LaFarge

During his travels in Japan with Henry Adams in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the doyen of American impressionist painters, La Farge, wrote with amazing sensitivity his observations about the whole of Japanese society at the time. John La Farge was born in New York in 1835 to a wealthy and artistic family of French descent. He studied art in Paris and then with William Hunt at Newport, Rhode Island. However, he had a unique and complex mind capable of immense subtlety. He studied Japanese wash painting and mastered Mandarin Chinese. He also invented the process later known as Tiffany Glass.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1897

About the author

John LaFarge, father of Jesuit priest John LaFarge, was an American painter, muralist, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer. He studied art at Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland and St. John's College (now Fordham University) in New York. LaFarge also studied with the painter William Morris Hunt in Newport, Rhode Island. A pioneer in the study of Japanese art, he maintained a studio in Greenwich Village and taught art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools. LaFarge also created stained-glass art at Trinity Church in Boston and Biltmore Estate in Asheville, among others. He is honored together with Ralph Adams Cram and Richard Upjohn with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on December 16.