Thomas Dewing | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-05-04)May 4, 1851 |
| Died | November 5, 1938(1938-11-05) (aged 87) |
| Education | Académie Julian,Paris |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Tonalism |
| Spouse | Maria Oakey Dewing |
| Patrons | John Gellatly,Charles Lang Freer |
Thomas Wilmer Dewing (May 4, 1851 – November 5, 1938) was an American painter working at the turn of the 20th century. Schooled in Paris, Dewing was noted for his figure paintings of aristocratic women. He was a founding member of theTen American Painters and taught at theArt Students League of New York. The Freer Gallery of Art at theSmithsonian Institution has a collection of his works.[1] He was the husband of fellow artistMaria Oakey Dewing.
Thomas was born inBoston, Massachusetts to parents Sophronia Durant and Paul Dewing, and served as a lithographic apprentice until at least 1870 when he was 19 years old.[2] He later studied at theAcadémie Julian inParis withGustave Boulanger andJules Lefebvre beginning in 1876. "There he learned an academic technique; the careful delineation of volumetric form and meticulous but subtle evocation of texture were to be constant features of his work."[3]
In 1880 he moved to New York where he met and marriedMaria Oakey Dewing,[4] an accomplished painter with extensive formal art training[5][6] and familial links with the art world.[citation needed] They had a son who died while an infant. In 1885 their daughter Elizabeth was born.[5] The Dewings spent their summers at theCornish Art Colony inNew Hampshire from 1885 to 1905.[7] These years may not have been as peaceful as they seemed, however. Thomas lost both of his surviving siblings, Paul F. and Louise within a month of each other in 1903.[8][9]
Upon his return to the United States from France in 1878,[3] Dewing returned to Boston.[4] The following year he paintedMorning, a composition of two women dressed in Renaissance gowns, which is said by biographer Ross C. Anderson to have the quality ofPre-Raphaelite paintings and emotion of aJames McNeill Whistler work.[3] He began teaching at theArt Students League of New York in 1881, the same year he married Maria Oakley.[3]
He is best known for histonalist paintings, a genre of American art that was rooted in EnglishAestheticism. Dewing's preferred vehicle of artistic expression is the refined, aristocratic female figure[3] situated in a moody and dreamlike surrounding.[10] Often seated playing instruments, writing letters, or simply communicating with one another, Dewing's sensitively portrayed figures have a detachment from the viewer that keeps the spectator a remote witness to the scene rather than a participant.[citation needed]
He was elected into theNational Academy of Design in 1888.[11] Dewing was a founding member of theTen American Painters in 1898, a group of artists who seceded from theSociety of American Artists in 1897.[3][12] He joined the Society of Landscape Painters, founded in 1899, where he was more aligned with other Tonalist artists.[12] Among his awards were medals at the Paris Exhibition (1889), at Chicago (1893), at Buffalo (1901) and at St Louis (1904).[13]
Key collectors of his works wereJohn Gellatly andCharles Lang Freer.[4]
He did not paint much after 1920 and lived out his later years in hisCornish, New Hampshire, home.[3] His wife died in 1927 in New York City[7] and Dewing died in New York in 1938.[3]
A noted Dewing scholar and curator is Susan A. Hobbs, who co-authoredThe Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured and co-curated a 1996 exhibition of his works of the same name with Dr. Barbara Dayer Gallati. Until that time it was the largest retrospective of his works; 70 paintings—oils, watercolors, silverpoints and pastels—were shown at theBrooklyn Museum of Art,National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and theDetroit Institute of Arts. The shows ran from March 1996 through January 1997.[4]The exhibition was made possible from funding from The Overbrook Foundation, the David Schwartz Foundation, and theNational Endowment for the Arts.[4]
.jpg)
His works are in private collections and museums in the United States. At the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, a room is devoted to Dewing's paintings.[4]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
