An Appreciation:
​Thomas Dewing

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has described Thomas Wilmer Dewing as “an artist's artist.” A successful American artist at the turn of the 20th century, Dewing had a unique Tonalist style, which he focused almost exclusively on a single subject matter.

Dewing was born in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts on May 4, 1851. His lineage extended from one of the first families in colonial New England. Dewing's father, however, suffered financial ruin and died as an alcoholic.

As a teenager, Dewing worked as an apprentice to a lithographer. However, his interest was in art and he took classes in art at the Lowell Institute and the Boston Art Club.

In 1876, Dewing journeyed to Paris, where he studied at the Academie Julian under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre. This training was primarily in the classical academic approach to figure drawing. While he was in Paris, Dewing became friends with Willian Merritt Chase.

Returning to the United States in 1879, Dewing taught at the new Boston Museum School of Fine Art. Although he was fining some success in Boston, he felt that he needed to move to New York City in order to further his career and in 1880, he did so.

Shortly after moving to New York, he proposed to fellow artist Maria Oakey and they were married in 1881. The two worked closely together with Maria occasionally painting the backgrounds for Thomas' figure paintings. In addition, the couple became leading members of New York's artistic community, living at the famous Studio Building in Manhattan. They had a son who died in infancy and a daughter.

The same year that the Dewings were married, Thomas became an instructor at the Art Students League of New York. This brought him into contact with Chase once more.

While Dewing had classical academic training, his mature style was not academic. However, unlike many of his contemporaries, Dewing's style was not Impressionistic either. Rather, influenced by James McNeill Whistler, his work was a unique version of Tonalism, relying on a limited palette, often with a single dominant color.

Unlike most Tonalists, Dewing did not focus on landscapes. Rather, the subject explored in the majority of his works were beautiful, refined women depicted outdoors or in sparsely furnished interiors. It was a time of great flux in America with changes resulting from industrialization, immigration and urbanization. A world of beauty and refinement provided an alternative that offered stability.
Dewing was now an established artist. In addition, patrons such as Charles Lang Freer and John Gallantly turned to Dewing for advice in building their art collections.

Beginning in 1885 and lasting through 1905, the Dewings spent the summers in Cornish, New Hampshire where they were leaders of an artist colony that included people such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Abbott Thayer. The Dewings and their colleagues believed in pursuing a “higher life” of art, music and literature. Works of art should evoke emotions and recall memories. Thomas would organize twilight picnics and theatrical performances where the artists and writers would socialize.

In 1888, Dewing was elected to the National Academy of Design and became a teacher there the next year. However, he became dissatisfied with that body and joined the breakaway Society of American Artists. But, by 1898, Dewing had come to view that organization as too restrictive. Therefore, he became one of the founding members of the Ten American Artists, which included artists such as John Twachman, Childe Hassam and J. Alden Weir.
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Dewing continued to actively paint and win honors into the early years of the new century. However, with the rise of Modernism in America following the 1913 Armory Show, his work became viewed as old-fashioned. Following Maria's death in 1927, Thomas virtually abandoned painting. He died in 1938 in New York City.

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Above: "The Spinet."

Below: "The White Dress"

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Above: "Young Girl Sitting"

Below: "The Letter."   

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Artist appreciation - Thomas Dewing