After the Nabis: Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Stained-Glass Windows for L’Art Nouveau of Siegfried Bing in Paris

Il saggio documenta i rapporti tra Siegfried Bing’s (1838–1905) e Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). Dopo il viaggio in America del 1894, Bing ottenne in esclusiva i diritti commerciali di Tiffany in Europa. In quella occasione il mercante tedesco, nato in Germania e residente a Parigi, convinse Tiffany a realizzare undici vetrate per lo showroom di Bing su cartoni dipinti da alcuni da più rappresentativi artisti del gruppo dei Nabis: Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton, Edouard Vuillard, Albert Besnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec e i designers P.A. Isaac-Dathis e Eugène Grasset. Il contributo riconsidera i contenuti e i contesti di questa commissione, documentandone per la prima volta in maniera sistematica tutti gli esiti. All'analisi del ruolo di Bing come mercante, mecenate e promotore dello stile moderno in Europa segue la discussione sulle idee degli artisti e sulle loro opere rilette come un tentativo coerente di "œuvre d’art totale" nel più ampio contesto delle poetiche e delle politiche del simbolismo francese.The essay investigates Siegfried Bing’s (1838–1905) connections with Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). After traveling to America in 1894, Bing succeeded in obtaining exclusive rights to Tiffany’s works in Europe. On that occasion, the German-born, Paris-based art merchant convinced Tiffany to make eleven stained-glass windows for Bing’s showroom after the cartoons designed by some of the most outstanding painters of the Nabis group: Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton, Edouard Vuillard, Albert Besnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the designers P.A. Isaac-Dathis and Eugène Grasset. This essay reconsiders contents and contexts of such commission, documenting for the first time, and comprehensively, all the artworks. The analysis of the role Bing played as dealer, patron and promoter of modern style in Europe is followed by the discussion of the artists' ideas and proposals, read as as a coherent attempt of "œuvre d’art totale" in the broadest context of French symbolism poetics and politics