John La Farge

John La Farge (1835-1910), American painter, known for his murals, watercolors, and stained glass decorations. He was born in New York City. He studied with the French painter Thomas Couture in Paris and the American painter William Morris Hunt in the United States; he painted landscapes and figure pieces of a simple, decorative nature. La Farge was commissioned to decorate Trinity Church, Boston, in 1876 and, as a result, became largely involved in mural work for most of his career. Experimenting with stained-glass decorations, he developed and subsequently manufactured an opalescent glass that became widely used. In 1886, on a visit to Japan and the South Sea islands, he painted many watercolors of native life. His work had considerable influence on American mural painting because of its classical simplicity and fine sense of design. The Ascension (1888), an altarpiece in the Church of the Ascension, New York City, and four lunettes in the Supreme Court room of the State Capitol, Saint Paul, Minnesota, are considered among his most important mural compositions. La Farge's notable work in stained glass includes the Watson memorial window at Trinity Church, Buffalo, New York, and the peacock window in the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.