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.
