Thomas Wilmer Dewing
Brocart de Venise (Venetian Brocade)
c. 1904–5
Thomas Wilmer Dewing was associated with Tonalism, a practice of painting rooted in the idealism and spiritualism of late nineteenth-century America. Tonalist works are characterized by emotion, mood, and poetic impulse rather than an objective transcription of reality. Here Dewing depicts two upper-class women in a moment of domestic leisure. Confined to a rarefied interior realm that is notably sealed off from the contemporary mechanized, industrial world, the women appear detached and isolated, both physically and psychologically. The soft uniformity of Dewing’s paint application causes these genteel figures to blend into their surroundings, reducing their role to a largely decorative one and communicating an overall feeling of bourgeois ease or, conversely, malaise. The prominent placement of the woman in the foreground, who seems lost in reverie as she listens to the music of the harpsichord, may also suggest the salutary effect of music on the soul, reflecting the Tonalist understanding of composition and color tones as a counterpoint to the palliative experience of musical harmony. [Permanent collection label, 2016]
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Artist
Thomas Wilmer Dewing
(American, 1851–1938)
- Title Brocart de Venise (Venetian Brocade)
- Date c. 1904–5
- Medium Oil on panel
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Dimensions
unframed | 19 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.
framed | 35 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 3 in.
- Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 1906
- Object number WU 2177
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Technique
oil painting
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Work type
painting
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Theme
House and Home
Emotions and Affect
Real / Radical / Psychological: The Collection on Display
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2016 - 01/15/2017
Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness and the Art of Painting Softly
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, Massachussets), 06/15/2008 - 10/19/2008
Teaching Gallery exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/2003 - 03/27/2003
Beginnings: The Taste of the Founders
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/21/2000 - 03/19/2000
Beauty Reconfigured: The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing
Brooklyn Museum, 03/21/1996 - 06/09/1996
Detroit Institute of Arts, 11/09/1996 - 01/19/1997
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 07/19/1996 - 10/14/1996
Green Acres: Neocolonialism in the U.S.
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/11/1992 - 11/01/1992
The Art of Music: American Paintings & Musical Instruments
Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, 04/07/1984 - 06/03/1984
Whitney Museum of American Art, 07/19/1984 - 09/19/1984
Nature and the Figure
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/09/1983 - 03/06/1983
Impressionism Reflected: American Art, 1890–1920
Saint Louis Art Museum, 05/06/1982 - 06/27/1982
The Centennial Exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1981 - 10/11/1981
Salon de Resserre: Selections of European and American Art of the Nineteenth Century from the Washington University Collections
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 02/01/1970 - 03/06/1970
Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960
An Exhibition of Paintings by Thomas W. Dewing
Carnegie Museum of Art, 02/01/1924 - 03/01/1924
T. W. Dewing and D. W. Tryon
N.E. Montross Gallery (New York, New York), 03/14/1906 - 03/31/1906
Global Vistas: American Art and Internationalism in the Gilded Age [online only]
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis
Inaugural Exhibition
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
1906
N. E. Montross Galley, New York
Inscription [LL of panel, in black paint:] T.W. DEWING
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