Thomas Wilmer Dewing (May 4, 1851November 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 the

Ten American Painters The Ten American Painters (also known as The Ten) was an artists' group formed in 1898 to exhibit their work as a unified group. John Henry Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, and Childe Hassam were the driving forces behind the organization. Dissatisfi ...

and taught at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may st ...

. The Freer Gallery of Art at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

has a collection of his works. He was the husband of fellow artist Maria Oakey Dewing.

Personal life and education

Thomas was born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents Sophronia Durant and Paul Dewing, and served as a lithographic apprentice until at least 1870 when he was 19 years old. He later studied at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

with Gustave Boulanger and

Jules Lefebvre Jules Joseph Lefebvre (; 14 March 183624 February 1911) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist. Early life Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie Tournan-en-Brie (, literally ''Tournan in Brie''), or simply Tournan, is a commune i ...

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." In 1880 he moved to New York where he met and married Maria Oakey Dewing, an accomplished painter with extensive formal art training and familial links with the art world. They had a son who died while an infant. In 1885 their daughter Elizabeth was born.Carol Kort; Liz Sonneborn.
A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts
'. Infobase Publishing; 1 January 2002. . p. 54. The Dewings spent their summers at the

Cornish Art Colony The Cornish Art Colony (or Cornish Artists’ Colony, or Cornish Colony) was a popular art colony centered in Cornish, New Hampshire from about 1895 through the years of World War I. Attracted by the natural beauty of the area, about 100 artists ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

from 1885 to 1905. 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.

Career

Upon his return to the United States from France in 1878, Dewing returned to Boston. The following year he painted ''Morning'', a composition of two women dressed in Renaissance gowns, which is said by biographer Ross C. Anderson to have the quality of

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jam ...

paintings and emotion of a

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

work. He began teaching at the

in 1881, the same year he married Maria Oakley. He is best known for his

tonalist Tonalist (foaled February 11, 2011) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2014 Belmont Stakes, beating the favored California Chrome, who was attempting to win the Triple Crown. Tonalist won the Peter Pan Stakes in M ...

paintings, a genre of American art that was rooted in English

Aestheticism Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be pro ...

. Dewing's preferred vehicle of artistic expression is the refined, aristocratic female figure situated in a moody and dreamlike surrounding. 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. He was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...

in 1888.National Academians: Surname beginning with "D".
National Academy of Design. Retrieved February 15, 2014. Dewing was a founding member of the

in 1898, a group of artists who seceded from the

Society of American Artists The Society of American Artists was an American artists group. It was formed in 1877 by artists who felt the National Academy of Design did not adequately meet their needs, and was too conservative. The group began meeting in 1874 at the home of ...

in 1897.Erik Brockett, "The Ten American Painters," ''Antiques & Fine Art Magazine.'' Retrieved February 15, 2014. He joined the Society of Landscape Painters, founded in 1899, where he was more aligned with other Tonalist artists. Among his awards were medals at the Paris Exhibition (1889), at Chicago (1893), at Buffalo (1901) and at St Louis (1904). Key collectors of his works were John Gellatly and

Charles Lang Freer Charles Lang Freer (February 25, 1854 – September 25, 1919) was an American industrialist, art collector, and patron. He is known for his large collection of East Asian, American, and Middle Eastern Art. In 1906, Freer donated his extensive col ...

Later years

He did not paint much after 1920 and lived out his later years in his

Cornish, New Hampshire Cornish is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,616 at the 2020 census. Cornish has four covered bridges. Each August, it is home to the Cornish Fair. History The town was granted in 1763 and contained ...

, home. His wife died in 1927 in New York City and Dewing died in New York in 1938.

Legacy

A noted Dewing scholar and curator is Susan A. Hobbs, who co-authored ''The 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 the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

National Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

in Washington, D.C., and the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

. The shows ran from March 1996 through January 1997.''The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing''.
Brooklyn Museum of Art. Retrieved February 15, 2014. The exhibition was made possible from funding from The Overbrook Foundation, the David Schwartz Foundation, and the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. File:Thomas Wilmer Dewing - The White Dress - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The White Dress'' File:Maria Oakey Dewing by Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938).jpg, ''Woman in Black: Portrait of Maria Oakey Dewing,'' oil on panel, 1887 File:Brooklyn Museum - Lady in Gold - Thomas Wilmer Dewing - overall.jpg, ''Lady in Gold'', 1912,

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

Collections

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.

References

External links

*
Major body of Dewing's work located at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewing, Thomas 1851 births 1938 deaths Artists from Newton, Massachusetts American expatriates in France 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American Impressionist painters Tonalism Académie Julian alumni 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters