Summer (1890), Smithsonian American Art Museum

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (May 4, 1851 – November 5, 1938) was an American painter working at the turn of the 20th century. He was born in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, and later settled into a studio in New York City. He married Maria Oakey Dewing, an accomplished painter who possibly intimidated Dewing due to her extensive formal art training and familial links with the art world. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art. ... May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). ... 1851 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... November 5 is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 56 days remaining. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Newton Lower Falls is a village of Newton, Massachusetts. ... The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... The city is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture, and is one of the worlds major global cities (along with London, Tokyo and Paris) with a virtually unrivaled collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and stock exchanges. ...

He is best known for his tonalist paintings, a sub-genre of American art that was rooted in English Aestheticism. Dewing's most common vehicle of artistic expression is the female figure. Often seated playing instruments, writing letters, or engaged in other impassive actions and situated in gauzy, dreamy interiors, the figures remain remote and distant to the viewer. These scenes are tinged with color that pervades the entire picture, setting tone and mood. Some feminist critics have lambasted Dewing's work as being misogynistic; he rarely painted anything other than the female figure decked in sumptuous clothing with vacant expressions. Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket James McNeill Whistler ca. ... The Aesthetic movement is a loosely defined movement in art and literature in later nineteenth century Britain. ...

Tonalism quickly came to be considered outdated with the advent of modernism and abstraction in art, though Dewing was successful in his own day. His art was considered extremely elegant, and has undergone a subtle revival in the last 10 years or so. The foremost Dewing scholar living today is Susan A. Hobbs. The most complete publication regarding Dewing in book format is "The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured".

Dewing was a member of the Ten American Painters, a group of Impressionists who seceded from the Society of American Artists in 1897. He spent his summers at the art colony in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Ten American Painters resigned from the Society of American Artists in late 1897/early 1898 to protest the large size and commercialism of that groups exhibitions. ... See also Impressionist (entertainment): A girl with a watering can by Renoir, 1876 Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, which began as a private association of Paris-based artists who exhibited publicly in 1874. ... The Society of American Artists was formed in 1877 by artists who felt the National Academy of Design did not adequately meet their needs, and was too conservative. ... 1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... An art colony is a place where artists live and work, interacting with one another, often creating a distinctive style. ... Cornish is a town located in Sullivan County, New Hampshire. ...

External links

• Major body of Dewing's work located at the Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institute
• Magazine Antiques article by Susan Hobbs, March 1996
• Online Gallery