Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/326

 LA FARGE

LA FARGE

LA FAROE, Christopher Grant, architect, was born in Newport, R.I., Jan. 5, 1863; son of John and Margaret (Perry) La Farge; grandson of Cliristoplier Grant and Frances (Sergeant) Perry and of Jean Frederic de la Farge; great- grandson of Com. Oliver Hazard and Elizabeth Champlin (Mason) Perry, and a descendant, through Frances Sergeant, of Benjamin Franklin and John Dickinson. He was taught to draw by his father whom he assisted in church decoration. He studied in Boston, at the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology, 1880-81, and in the office of H. H. Richardson, 1882. He then joined his classmate George L. Heins (q. v.) who was estab- lished at Minneapolis, and in 1884 they returned to New York, where they took charge of the architectural work of John La Farge. In 1885 they formed a partnership as architects and their first work was upon commercial buildings in the west. In 1891 in competition with sixty-seven other architects for the plan of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York city, they were

CATHCPRAL OF Sr J OH AJ THE. PI VIAE ,-/M.V. CITY.

the successful designers. They also planned the interior of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, and Church of the Incarnation, New York city; planned the church and rectory for Fourth Pres- byterian churcli. New York city; St. Matthews church, Washington, D.C.; the Chm-ch of the Blessed Sacrament, Providence, R.I.; St. Paul's church and parish house, Rochester, N.Y.; Houghton Memorial chapel, Wellesley, Mass.; R. C. church and rectory. Tuxedo, N.Y.; R. C. chapel. West Point, N.Y.; Chapel and parish house of St. Michael's church, Geneseo, N.Y.; Church of the Reconciliation, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Lorillard and Matthiesen niausoleums,Woodlawn, N.Y.; alterations and extensions of Grace church, N.Y., 1901; and accessory buildings for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In 1899 his partner, Mr. Heins, was made state architect for

the state of New York. Mr. La Farge was mar- ried, Sept. 5, 1895, to Florence Bayard, daughter of Benoni and Florence (Bayard) Lockwood and niece of the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware. LA FAROE, John, artist, was born in New York city, March 31, 1835; son of Jean Frederic de la Farge, a midshipman in the French navy, who sailed with General Leclerc to Santo Do- mingo, was taken prisoner, compelled to teach the negroes, escaped at the time of the mas- sacre and settled in New York city. John La Farge studied painting in Paris un- der Couture, who per- ceiving his talent, advised him to study by himself and thus preserve his individu- ality. He removed to Newport, R.I., where he married Margaret, daughter of Christopher Grant and Frances (Ser- geant) Perry. He studied landscape painting with William Morris Hunt. His first impor- tant religious picture was " St. Paul," in 1861. He undertook the decoi'ation of Trinity church, Boston, in 1876, but want of sufficient time and lack of money on the part of the parish prevented his completing such a finished decoration as he originally intended, and the only mural decora- tions in the church by him are the allegorical sub- jects above the windows in the tower, six figures of prophets in heroic size below the windows, " Jesus and the Woman of Samaria '' on the north wall of the nave, " Jesus and Nicoaemus " on the south wall and " St. James " on the east- ern wall, under the arch. In 1877 he executed the paintings, and with Augustus St. Gaudens, tliealto relievo in the chancel of St. Thomas's church, New York. His other churcli work includes: " The Adoration of the Wise Men " in the Church of the Incarnation; " The Ascension " in the cliancel of the Church of the Ascension, and the decorations in the chancel of Trinity chui'ch, Buffalo, N.Y. He executed most of the interior decorations in the Vanderbilt mansions and the paintings for the music room in the residence of Whitelaw Reid. He devoted much attention to the art of decorative glass. He invented and carried out in all its details from the making of the glass material itself, the method now known as American. For this he received from the French government the decoration of chevalier of the Legion of Honor at the Paris exposition in 1889. He was made officier of the order in 1901.