Thomas Wilmer Dewing

The 19th-century concept of “art for art’s sake” aspired to harmony in all aspects of design. In Lady in Gray, diffused light, the suggestion of music, and the use of a dominant gray tone create a sense of reverie. Dewing and others in his circle extended the decorative effect of their paintings by placing them in custom-designed frames. This example, in Renaissance Revival tabernacle style, was designed by Dewing’s friend, the architect Stanford White. The frame’s ornamentation, including Corinthian capitals and classical moldings, mediated between the painting and the decorated room in which it would have hung.

Dewing’s subdued palette and intimate interior scenes were characteristic of Tonalism, a style that paralleled the development of American Impressionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Strongly influenced by the Aesthetic Movement in the desire to create harmonies in all aspects of design, Tonalist painting could be identified by soft, diffused light and hazily rendered subjects. Dewing specialized in a figural version of this style and was known for images of women playing musical instruments. Like Whistler, Chase, and Alexander, whose color-themed paintings may be seen nearby, he often keyed the subject to a named tone, in this case the color gray. Dewing’s circle also included the artists who gathered for the summer in Cornish, New Hamphire, and Dublin, New Hampshire. Like his neighbors Abbott Thayer and Willard Metcalf, he paid particular attention to the framing of his paintings (see the frames on their works in this exhibition). For Lady in Gray, he selected an American Renaissance altar style that may have been designed for him by Stanford White, the architect of Rhode Island’s State Capitol and the Newport Casino, among many famous buildings.