With his prodigious embrace of varied media—glass, pottery, windows, painting, metalwork, enamels, jewelry, lighting, mosaics, and interiors—Louis Comfort Tiffany was the dominant figure in American decorative arts from the 1870s to the 1920s. Granted freedom through financial means (his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, was the founder of Tiffany & Company), Tiffany chose to forge his own artistic path, originally working as a painter and developing an extensive appreciation for nature and foreign cultures through his travels. Best known for his work with glass, Tiffany began to study the chemistry and techniques of glassmaking at age 24, ultimately establishing his own firm and a reputation for decorative glass and his patented opalescent windows.