Design for Autumn Landscape window

Along with flowers and foliage, Northrop’s great strength was landscape design. Northrop designed her first landscape window for Tiffany in 1895, and the number of commissions for domestic, religious, and memorial settings grew thereafter. The composition of this window, which includes a central cascading river bordered by receding mountains and framed by tall birch trees, resonates strongly with Northrop’s other landscape designs. Here, the trees are ignited by red, orange, and yellow autumn foliage that contrasts strikingly with the purple mountains, gray-green rocks, and pale sky beyond. This window was commissioned for the Boston home of Loren Delbert Towle in 1923, but Towle died before the house was completed, leaving the window without a home. Robert W. de Forest, former president of the Metropolitan Museum, purchased the window and donated it to the American Wing, where it is on view today in the Englehard Court.