Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)
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Thomas Wilmer Dewing was an American artist born in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts. Dewing attended the Académie Julian in Paris before settling in New York City. Dewing often painted the female figure in interior settings. Dewing’s figures were often playing instruments such as the lute or piano, in an elegant, interior setting.
Dewing is known as a “tonalist” painter, a genre that emphasizes atmosphere and shadow rather than narrative. While Dewing was successful, tonalism quickly faded from the art scene as abstraction became more popular.
Dewing was also associated with the American Impressionist painters. Dewing belonged to the Ten American Painters, a group that formed out of the Society of American Artists. Dewing spent most f his time in New York, but spent summers working in New Hampshire at the Cornish Art Colony. The rural setting of Cornish greatly inspired Dewing’s landscape paintings. It was important for Dewing to get out of the city in able to paint plein-air paintings. Dewing would return to New York in the fall with a renewed spirit, ready to exhibit his work. Dewing was able to make a lot of connections through his wife, Maria Oakey Downing, who was also a well-known painter in New York City.
In the past decade tonalist paintings have become more desirable again, which has raised the value and popularity of Dewing’s work. Dewing’s paintings are in numerous private collections and museums across the United States. A large number of Dewing’s painting are now belong to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
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