Commissioned by President Chester A. Arthur from Louis Comfort Tiffany, the glass screen is depicted here in a contemporary painting by artist Peter Waddell. Waddell’s scene focuses on the introduction of electricity in 1891. It altered the effect of the screen’s opalescent glass, which was made to filter light, as it does here in early evening.

The Grand Illumination: Sunset of the Gaslight Age, 1891. This oil painting of the Entrance Hall by Peter Waddell was made in 2006. The painting captures the lighting of a gaslight in 1891 during the Benjamin Harrison administration. The colored glass screen in the background was made by Louis Comfort Tiffany and was installed in the Entrance Hall to create a warmer welcoming for visitors while shielding the drawing rooms from the cold winter weather entering through the front door.