This past Saturday, friends and I took a day trip to Winter Park, which is near Orlando, Florida. Winter Park is a lovely town, filled with parks and plantings.
Our first stop was the Morse Museum, which includes 250 art and architectural details from Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany's Long Island estate. My favorite part of the (permanent) exhibit was the recreation of the Daffodil Terrace. It features the large daffodil capitals above, made from concrete and glass. The daffodils were originally cast glass, but Tiffany wasn't satisfied with the look. So he revised the capitals and made them more natural by having each individual flower petal hand blown.
Park Avenue is the main street, filled with high-end shops and restaurants of every sort. We enjoyed the skirt hanging above, made from rolls of gift wrap.
Park Avenue is a busy street, filled with shoppers and tourists every day of the week. Look down a side street, though, and you'll see a quiet scene that could be European.
My favorite shop was painted with these Victorian motifs.
In the image below, the lamp is bronze, but the base behind it is trompe l'oeil.
We ended the day by visiting the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens. Albin Polasek (1879-1965) came to the United States from what is now the Czech Republic. He was the head of the sculpture department at the Art Institute of Chicago for 30 years, and a member of the National Academy of Design. He retired to a lovely house of his own design in Winter Park, and left it as a museum. The grounds wind down to the lake you see in this photo.
+
Looks like an absolutely charming town!! I adore those Tiffany daffodil capitals - amazing!! And so lovely to see all the beautiful plantings - can't wait for spring!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful little field trip! Those daffodils are absolutely wonderful and are not we glad Mr. Tiffany was such a perfectionist!
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, what a great outing you had. I love the Art Nouveaux design right above the Sphinx by the window...and those daffodils!
ReplyDeleteThank you Stacey, David and Gina! The nice thing about Winter Park is that it's a good mix of museums and retail therapy. I've been there twice and there are still several museums I haven't yet seen.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Orlando Park Ave was a sort of hang out for me. It's mostly retained its character albeit with the introduction of chain stores. The Albin Polasek Museum is completely unknown to me. How did I miss that?
ReplyDeleteYears ago I was visiting and purely by chance ran into one of my painting teachers having a show at Rollins.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_waterman/254342825/
wow -i want to go to there; all of it!
ReplyDeleteScott, the Albin Polasek Museum is very small, but it's a stone's throw from Rollins.
ReplyDeleteStefan, if I were visiting Orlando for the first time, I'd take a day or two to do the Disney experience, then I'd wind down a little in Winter Park. Imagine Georgetown on one street.
I am so impressed by those exquisite daffodil capitals. Look how the sides appear as lattice, or perhaps a stylized pattern of stems and leaves?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Tiffany had a home in Florida. I sometimes feel that artists like Tiffany help us to appreciate the beauty of plant forms and nature in a way that we might not on our own.
I want to summer in Winter Park, so beautiful, thanks for the tour. I can feel the sunshine. I need some warm sunshine.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Tiffany tulip pergola when it was at the Met a number of years ago, and I long to visit the Morse to see it there, amongst the other Tiffany treasures in the collection.
ReplyDeleteTerry, to my knowledge, Tiffany didn't have a home in Florida, though I'm sure he vactioned here through the years. Laurelton Hall was his Long Island estate, and it burned to the ground. Charles Hosmer Morse saved much of what remained, and funded the museum in Winter Park to house those wonderful salvagings.
ReplyDeleteKevin, thanks for visiting. Florida has had an unusually mild spring (it's felt like spring), but I am already running my air conditioner!
ReplyDeleteReggie, the exhibit at the Met was a partial showing of Winter Park's permanent exhibit, the most comprehensive collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany's works. The exhibit includes a complete chapel interior that Tiffany created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteLast time I was in Winter Park it was during their art fair. Quite an impressive turnout and the weather (April, I think) was perfect. I picked up a few handmade scarves and an etching. Would love to go again.
ReplyDeleteHi, Buoni - April and October are prime times to visit Florida, particularly October. I have never been to the Winter Park art show, but I know it's one of the premier art events in Florida.
ReplyDelete