“Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination” will showcase the jeweler’s naturalistic designs, such as this Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co. “Hedges and Flowers” necklace (1978-1987) featuring gold, platinum, diamond, rubellite tourmaline, and turquoise. The exhibition is slated to open on Oct. 9 and run through March 29, 2027.
Bentonville, Ark.—An exhibition highlighting Tiffany & Co. creations inspired by the natural world is heading to the Natural State.
“Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination” will open next month at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Bentonville is about three hours northwest of Little Rock, Arkansas—near the state’s border with both Missouri and Oklahoma—and is home to Walmart’s corporate headquarters.
The exhibition will explore the role of the jeweler within the broader context of American art, the museum said, showcasing how the house transformed the country’s landscapes and natural resources into enduring works of creativity and beauty.
It will feature jewelry and gemstones from The Tiffany Archives spanning 1885 to 1987, as well as paintings, glass, books, minerals, and sculpture from the museum’s permanent collection.
A Tiffany & Co. necklace, 1885-1895, made in 18-karat gold with 30 multicolored American-mined tourmalines (Photo courtesy of The Tiffany Archives)
“‘Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination’ offers a remarkable opportunity to celebrate Tiffany’s rich heritage through a distinctly American lens,” said Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany & Co.’s chief gemologist and vice president of high jewelry diamond and gemstone acquisition.
“Crystal Bridges is presenting masterpieces from The Tiffany Archives in dialogue with exceptional works of American art and design, revealing the enduring influence of nature across generations of creativity. We are proud to showcase these extraordinary objects and to illuminate Tiffany’s longstanding contribution to American artistry and design.”
Founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1837, Tiffany & Co. has shaped American jewelry design for nearly two centuries.
Led by its first chief gemologist, George Frederick Kunz, the jeweler championed American gemstones at a time when European jewelers mostly overlooked them.
Kunz has a gemstone named after him, kunzite, which is a pink-to-lilac purple variety of the mineral spodumene.
The 27.21-carat Arkansas Diamond is one of the largest gemstones ever discovered in the United States. It was unearthed in Arkansas in 1926 and purchased by Tiffany & Co. in 1946. (Photo courtesy of The Tiffany Archives)
Diamonds from Arkansas, tourmalines from Maine, sapphires from Montana, emeralds from North Carolina, and kunzite from California show the geological diversity of the United States, the museum said.
A highlight of the exhibition is the 27-carat Arkansas Diamond, one of the largest diamonds ever found in the United States.
Tiffany & Co. acquired the diamond in 1946.
Creations from the house’s most notable designers, including George Paulding Farnham and Jean Schlumberger, also will be on display.
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Throughout the exhibition, curated pairings will illuminate the exchange of ideas between jewelry and fine art, the museum said.
Farnham’s enameled orchid brooches from 1889-1893 reflect the same fascination with botanical accuracy that the museum said captivated painters like Martin Johnson Heade and William Jacob Hayes Sr. around the same time.
Abstract paintings such as Carmen Herrera’s “Cerulean,” 1965, and Leon Polk Smith’s “New Moon for August,” 1983, draw attention to line, form, and geometry, which the museum said offers a new view of crystal formations and faceted gemstones.
A George Paulding Farnham for Tiffany & Co. brooch, 1889-1893, made of gold, diamonds, rubies, and enamel (Photo courtesy of The Tiffany Archives)
Martin Johnson Heade’s “Cattleya Orchid, Two Hummingbirds and a Beetle,” circa 1875-1890, oil on canvas (Photo courtesy of Crystal Bridges)
At left, a Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co. “Bird on a Rock brooch,” 1965, made in gold, platinum, diamonds, ruby, tanzanite (photo courtesy of The Tiffany Archives). At right, Carmen Herrera’s “Cerulean,” 1965, acrylic on canvas in artist’s frame (photo courtesy of Crystal Bridges).
“This exhibition reveals the power of seeing The Tiffany Archives and Crystal Bridges collection in conversation,” said Jen Padgett, Crystal Bridges’ Windgate curator of craft.
“Through this collaboration, we can highlight the remarkable creativity, attention to materials, and skilled making that have shaped American art and design across generations.”
Other pairings explore shared formal concerns across disciplines.
Jean Schlumberger designs are presented alongside artist Hope Gangloff’s “Queen Jane,” created in approximately 2011.
Schlumberger sought to “make everything look as if it were growing, uneven, organic,” capturing what he described as “the irregularity of the universe,” the museum said, noting that Gangloff’s approach to pattern and decoration conveys a similar worldview.
“Nature Adorned: The Artistry of Tiffany & Co. and the American Imagination” will be on view from Oct. 9 through March 29, 2027.
The exhibition follows the museum’s acquisition of Mountain Landscape (Root Memorial Window), 1917, a stained-glass window measuring more than 9 feet tall created by Tiffany Studios and attributed to designer Agnes F. Northrop.
The window, depicting a cascading waterfall framed by lush foliage, exemplifies mastery of color and light, the museum said.
An exhibition dedicated to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studios will go on display at another museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, late next month.
Crystal Bridges is located at 600 Museum Way in Bentonville, nestled on 134 acres in the Ozarks. It opened in 2011.
Philanthropist Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune, founded the museum as a public 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization.
