Thomas Wilmer Dewing

American, 1851 - 1938

(not assigned)New York, New York

SchoolThe Ten

Biography(b Boston, 4 May 1851; d New York, 1938).
American painter. Apprenticed at an early age in a lithography shop, he went to Paris in 1876 to study under Jules Lefèbvre and Gustave Boulanger at the Académie Julian. There he learnt an academic technique; the careful delineation of volumetric form and meticulous but subtle evocation of texture were to be constant features of his work. Paintings done after his return to the USA in 1878, such as Morning (1879; Wilmington, DE, A. Mus.), in which two enigmatic figures in Renaissance costume blow delicate, elongated horns before a pair of attentive whippets, have a symbolic quality closer to the work of the Pre-Raphaelites than to contemporary French painting. In addition, they have an aesthetic languor and preciousness reminiscent of James McNeill Whistler. In the considerably more vigorous The Days (1887; Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum), the shallow frieze-like arrangement of robust, rhythmically interacting women in classical drapery strongly recalls the art of Albert Joseph Moore and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
Dewing's predominant theme emerged in the 1890s with elegant, aristocratic women lost in reverie within sparse but tastefully furnished interiors, or wandering idly in lush but barely indicated landscapes, as can be seen in After Sunset (1892; Washington, DC, Freer). Dewing referred to works of this type as 'decorations'; they are usually large in scale and were occasionally applied to folding screens in the Japanese manner. Such works also show the influence of Tonalism in Dewing's use of a single predominating colour and diffuse, gentle lighting.
Dewing's studies of interiors are smaller and more detailed works, although they also exhibit a narrow tonal range and evoke the same understated melancholy. The women are dignified rather than beautiful and often appear with a book or musical instrument, as in A Reading (1897; Washington, DC, N. Mus. American A.). Devoid of anecdotal drama, yet imbued with an aura of quietude and internal tension, these works recall those of Johannes Vermeer, who was much admired at this time. Dewing also became adept with pastel and the demanding medium of silverpoint, producing figure studies and nudes of extraordinary beauty.
In 1881 Dewing began teaching at the Art Students League in New York; in the same year he married Maria Oakey (1845-1927), a flower painter, who provided the landscapes in several of Dewing's paintings. In 1898 he was a founder-member of the Ten american painters, after becoming dissatisfied with the aesthetic aims and exhibition policies of the academies.
Dewing enjoyed considerable success in his career. Stanford White was an influential supporter, who designed frames for many of his paintings and introduced him to two influential collectors, John Gellatly and Charles Lang Freer. In his later years Dewing often expressed bewilderment and dismay over the array of modernist styles that gained credibility in American art following the Armory show of 1913. After 1920 he painted very little and spent his last years in relative isolation at his home in Cornish, NH. (Source: ROSS C. ANDERSON, "Thomas Wilmer Dewing," The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Oxford University Press) Accessed February 9,2004) http://www.groveart.com

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