Sometime in the early 1900s, William Lees Judson, the Los Angeles-based business impresario and painter, received what might be the most impressive resume of all time from a hopeful artist. In a bid to work at the innovative stained glass studio Judson had founded with his sons about a decade prior, an East Coast artist trained in the Tiffany tradition — think ornate, glass mosaic lamps — had sent in a four-and-a-half-foot-tall handmade piece they’d created of the Angel Gabriel. Standing placidly before a mosaic window, the Biblical figure is rendered practically lifelike through textured, blue-green glass that mimicked the folds of a robe. In a dramatic touch, the jobseeker had the angel holding a bouquet of lilies with three-dimensional metal stamens poking out from the petals.
Judson ended up hiring this prospective stained glass artist to work at his California studio. Yet the fact that an artist trained at the famous Tiffany clamored for a spot at Judson’s tiny, family-run studio nestled next to the Arroyo Seco, in Los Angeles’ Highland Park, speaks to how influential the homegrown art institution has been since its inception in 1897.
L.A.’s lovely weather didn’t hurt, either.