Sketchbook

Louis C. Tiffany began his artistic career as a painter, and he continued to paint and draw throughout his life. Early on he embraced work on paper (he was an early member of the Society of Watercolor alongside his close friend and mentor Samuel Colman), and some of his best work was in watercolor, gouache, and pastel.




In January 1908, Tiffany made an extended winter trip to Egypt, traveling on the Nile with his wife and twin daughters. Egypt had captured Tiffany's interest early in his career, and he made at least two trips there during his lifetime. The art and architecture that he saw and admired there was an important influence on a number of the designs for decorative arts in various media. Other landscapes and town views appear as suggestions that would later find interpretation in finished artworks. Sketchbooks such as this one provide the rare evidence of an artist’s impressions with an economy of means, and as such offers a key to a greater understanding of the artist.