Thomas Wilmer Dewing

A Look Beneath the Surface

Susan Hobbs Since the advent of modernism, broad lines of emphasis in a pro- Yu-tarng Cheng the paintings of Thomas Wilmer jected painting, its "characteristic Dewing (1851-1938) have some- masses, forms, action, effect and Jacqueline S. Olin times been faulted for a lack. of colour scheme."3 Having laid in variety despite their technical this "mosaic" of lights and darks, mastery. Indeed, the diagnostic the artist would then link the technique of neutron-induced au- patches with demi-teintes (inter- toradiography reveals that Dewing mediate hues). On occasion the was so skilled that he typically artist retained this mosaic until he proceeded from start to finish had neared the work's completion, with an unfaltering, unerring when he would use white pig- hand.1 But modern methods of ments to pull together and resolve analysis also show that Dewing ex- separate portions of the painting. perimented and responded to new Autoradiography, with other techniques. Because he was in methods of scientific analysis, can many ways a painter's painter, rec- reveal Dewing's original ebauche ognized in his own day for his su- as well as his subsequent applica- perb ability as a draftsman and tion of paint. In this technique the colorist, scientific evidence of the painting is exposed to a low dose evolution of his techniques is par- of neutrons. A series of films is ticularly revealing.2 then placed on the surface of the Dewing rarely expounded on canvas for predetermined intervals the theory and practice of painting correlated to the known half-lives and left no separate preparatory of inorganic elements in the paint. drawings or oil sketches, so the The film, sensitive to the charged art historian must go to the works particles, registers the location of themselves to ascertain Dewing's activated elements, producing a methods. Autoradiography, which visual image of the spatial distri- can suggest the sequence in which bution of the pigments. The chem- the painter laid in his composi- ical elements that produce the im- tion, is especially instructive to un- ages are identified by gamma ray derstanding a painter like Dewing, spectroscopy, then verified by who employed throughout his ca- X-ray fluorescence and the scan- reer the classical ebauche he had ning electron microscope. Used in learned while a student in . conjuction with X-ray radiographs, An ebauche, as taught by the which show such heavy elements French Academy, is the initial un- as lead that are undetectable by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, ca. 1910 derpainting that establishes the autoradiography, this scientific

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1 Portrait of Frances L. Houston, ca. 1880-89. Oil on canvas, 195/8 x 1414 in. National Museum of American Art, , Gift of John Gellatly

analysis can document Dewing's everywhere on his surface," re- evolving design, including his called Ezra Tharp after he inter- palette-knife work, stippling, and viewed Dewing for an article smoothly applied finishing strokes, published in 1914. Much to his as well as the addition and elimi- surprise the critic found the artist nation of passages in the to be "a tall, fierce, bristling man, composition.4 bitterly ready to quarrel, using a witty tongue so as to cause bitter- ness in others." Dewing was, how- Dewing's Early Academic Works ever, intensely dedicated to art, as Dewing "did not look in the least Tharp thus noted: like the type who would be painting Dewings," a studio mate His work is the onl' thing he's in- once observed of the tall, robust terested in all the time, his one artist. "Little contradictions are passionate interest. ... At his

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms la This autoradiograph, fifth in a series of twelve, clearly shows the mosaic of lights and darks Dewing employed to model Houston's face, particularly the area just below her right eye. The image also shows the bow or flower that was present before Dewing lowered the neckline and lengthened the ruff.

studio by half-past eight, he sits stead, he went to work for a li- there for ten months of the year thographer while still a boy and every day as long as the light lasts, soon became a remarkable sitting hunched and doubled up, draftsman. He further developed in a low chair despite his enor- this skill under the physician- mous size, so that he shan't see the sculptor William Rimmer, who tops of things too much.5 taught drawing and anatomy les- sons in 's Studio Building This passion for painting and in 1874-75 and lectured at the love of technique were undoubt- nearby Lowell Institute. Dewing edly deeply rooted in Dewing's had gained a reputation for his youthful academic training. fine chalk portraits before he de- Born in Boston in 1851 to a parted for Paris in July 1876. family of modest means, Dewing There he entered the Academie had little formal education. In- Julian, which offered students vir-

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2 Nude, n.d. Oil on panel, 133/8 X 101/2 in. Akron Art Museum, Bequest of Edwin C. Shaw

tually the same curriculum as the Bonnat (1834-1923), who taught Ecole des Beaux Arts without the several of Dewing's close friends. stiff entrance requirements. Along When he returned to the with other aspiring young Amer- in 1878, Dewing ican artists, Dewing learned how worked first in his native Boston to lay in an ebauche and to draw and then in , where and paint from the live model, he moved in October 1880. There primarily under the direction of he employed the techniques he Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888) had just learned in a portrait of and Jules Joseph LeFebvre (1834- his friend and pupil Frances Lyons 1912), as well as other instructors Houston (fig. 1). The work is a who taught at the Ecole des Beaux costume piece featuring an elabo- Arts. As one student remembered rate ruff framing Houston's face, it, in planning a painting, the artist reminiscent of the sort of tete was to stress the ensemble, not d'expression (character head) the details.6 Dewing also fre- Dewing learned to paint at the quented the private atelier of aca- Acadmie Julian.7 Autoradiographs demician Leon Joseph Florentin of the painting reveal that Dewing

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2a Infrared reflectography reveals the flowing executed his ebauche following was originally cropped at the contours of the academic nude and the the time-honored academic neck. Dewing framed Frances artist's uppercase signature, which he practice. employed early in his career Houston against a mottled back- Using a thin, diluted pigment, ground typical of an ebauche, usu- 2b This autoradiograph, seventh in a series of Dewing blocked in the back- ally "rubbed" in quickly with nine, shows the unbroken stroke with ground with a wide brush, which broad, transparent strokes that al- which Dewing outlined the figure, as well he brought down squarely to the lowed the grain of the canvas to as the agitated brush strokes with which he outline of the ruff. He left the show through.8 In his finished laid in the background. collar as a reserve area to be com- work he elaborated on this effect pleted later, at this point merely by applying a brown glaze over indicating a few shadows. He then his yellow pigment. Mottled back- proceeded to lay in the lights and grounds remained a consistent darks as a foundation for mod- feature of Dewing's work eling the face (fig. la). A glance at throughout his career. the area just below Frances Infrared reflectography of Houston's right eye, for example, Dewing's recently restored Nude shows some four or five uncon- (fig. 2), painted about the same nected patches of pigment. When time, uncovered beneath the Dewing applied brilliant white painting's surface the flowing con- scumbling to the sitter's forehead, tours and melancholy profilperdu this bright area must have made (lost profile) characteristic of an the composition seem top-heavy. academic nude (fig. 2a). Autora- To correct this effect, the artist diography demonstrates that the proceeded to elongate the artist traced his relaxed nude with opening of the ruff into a V, for, as a sure and unhesitating hand (fig. the autoradiographs show, the ruff 2b), thereby confirming, through

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 3 Tobias and the Angel, 1886. Oil on canvas, scientific analysis, Dewing's tech- summer place in Cornish, New 241/8 x 401/8 in. Metropolitan Museum of nical mastery and adherence to ac- Hampshire, eight years after he Art, Gift of Edward D. Adams ademic practice. Dewing himself had returned from Paris (fig. 3). explained, "The whole figure must Dewing's master, Gustave be considered in everything you Boulanger, had won the Prix de draw. If you think the nose is too Rome in 1849 for his rendition of short you may find that it is the Tobias and the Angel, the compe- elbow which is too long." Possibly tition's sujet du premier essai, so using bone black, he drew directly Dewing was probably familiar with 3a (opposite) This autoradiograph, sixth in a on an ungrounded wood panel. well-known interpretations of the series of eleven, shows Dewing's first Following the accepted academic theme. Yet his treatment was strik- version of the painting, in which the two method, he massed shadows and ingly different from that of his figures communicate by look and gesture. added highlights in a pattern of predecessors. Whereas others had It also reveals the trees Dewing placed behind the angel and later eliminated. unjoined brushstrokes. To keep subordinated the angel Raphael in (What appear here as grid lines are the both portions of the painting in the composition, Dewing reversed edges offilm, which must be pieced tonal balance, he probably worked this emphasis in an attempt to "get together to cover the surface of Dewing's the background as he painted the away from the beaten tracks," as larger works.) figure.9 The brushwork against one critic put it.'o which the nude is framed, more Autoradiography and X-ray ra- 3b (opposite) This X-ray radiograph indicates the lead white strokes that Dewing agitated than usual in such works, diography reveal the alterations eventually distributed throughout the sky, is possibly the result of over- the artist made to the painting be- probably in an effort to balance the angel's painting, for the artist-and pos- fore he exhibited it in 1887.11 He white wings. The thinly painted wings were sibly others-altered the work at positioned the draped figure of probably painted in zinc white, virtually a later date. the angel Raphael in the center transparent to X-rays. The small portion of the wing near the angel that does appear Dewing's Tobias and the Angel of the composition and placed was most likely applied in a different also reflects his academic training, Tobias off to the far right (fig. 3a). pigment. although he painted it at his In an apparent attempt to balance

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 4 The Spinet, 1902. Oil on panel, 151/2 x 20 the angel's large wings, Dewing withdrawn and introspective. in. National Museum of American Art, placed two trees on either side of Raphael's face, turned away from Smithsonian Institution, Gift of John him. Finding this treatment to be Tobias, looks heavenward with an Gellatly unsuccessful, he then lowered the expression of mystical rapture. horizon line and eliminated the Tobias, on the other hand, draws trees. Just as he had found it nec- his arm over his head, enshroud- essary to balance one bright white ing himself in his fishing net. The area with another in his Portrait result is to evoke what one critic of Frances L. Houston, here, too, termed that "picturesque awk- he saw the need to balance the wardness which Dewing so well angel's ponderous wings with affects."12 thick white patches scattered Dewing at Mid-Career throughout the sky (fig. 3b). Of greater interest, however, is Throughout the 1890s Dewing's the change that Dewing made in signature works featured interiors the figures themselves. In the ear- with seated female figures or young lier version of the painting Tobias women disposed in ethereal land- and Raphael interact, whereas in scapes. Then, shortly after 1900, Dewing's final conception each is he began to employ a darker,

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 4a-b Antimony and mercury, associated with yellow and red pigments, were detected in autoradiograph 4a, top, ninth in a series of twelve, which gives excellent definition to the intricately patterned wall hanging behind the spinet. This autoradiograph also shows details of the cascading skirt. The framed mirror above the spinet is missing and must have been added toward the last. Autoradiographs 4a and 4b, the latter fourth in the series, both show how the artist delicately shaded in the sitter's spine and shoulder blades and used a thick impasto to model her back.

more Italianate palette on smooth, Cornish, , using a commercially prepared Winsor & fellow artist who lived nearby as Newton panels, conducive to pre- the model for the seated figure cise, detailed paint application. (fig' 4). Autoradiographs of this During this period he depicted panel painting illustrate the finesse strongly illuminated subjects using with which Dewing drew the com- brown, cream, and rust hues. postion's preparatory oil sketch, One such example is The rendering it deftly from start to Spinet, which Dewing produced in finish. An exposure late in the au-

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 5 Alma, ca. 1895-1905. Oil on wood, 20 x 155/8 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of John Gellatly

toradiograph series defines the Newton panel (fig. 5). Like many oriental arabesque of the tapestry, artists at the time, Dewing seems its asymmetrical pattern more to have discovered that the clearly visible than in the painting ebauche better expressed his ar- itself (fig. 4a). This autoradiograph tistic aims than did a more per- also shows details of the cascading fected work.'3 He deliberately left skirt. As the framed mirror above it visible throughout the lower the spinet is absent, it must have portion of his painting, where been added later. The autoradi- freely applied strokes around the ographs in figures 4a and 4b also torso, arm, and hand zigzag across demonstrate how, through the use each other (fig. 5a). The autoradi- of different pigments, the artist ex- ograph also reveals the freedom quisitely modeled the bone struc- with which Dewing painted in the ture of the sitter's back. background. While it appears as a Dewing's Alma, another flat, dark field, in fact the artist product of his Italianate period, used randomly angled strokes, was also painted on the smooth which he brought up to his sitter surface of a prepared Winsor & with a wide brush. By contrast,

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 5a This autoradiograph, fourth in a series of Dewing finished modeling the wool. The earlier work is essen- eleven, illustrates the spontaneity with face with fine, parallel hatching tially brown in hue, The Necklace which Dewing laid in the lights and darks strokes (fig. 5b). In the neck he predominately green. With visual of his ebauche, which he later left visible in stacked short, horizontal strokes to references to James McNeill the garment as he finished the face. The blocking in of the neck and face is visible define the long chords of Alma's Whistler (1834-1903), Jan Vermeer where the autoradiograph is prominently taut tendons. Apparently pleased (1632-1675), and Japanese prints, darkened by the presence of zinc, identified with his juxtaposition of a highly this work exemplifies the soft by X-ray fluorescence. finished head and an uncompleted with which Dewing is torso, the artist signed the panel most often associated. The dimin- 5b This detail shows the fine modeling of the face, where the brush strokes are barely and sold it to his patron John utive panel was first shown at perceptible because of the panel's smooth Gellatly (1853-1931). Pittsburgh's Carnegie Institute, surface. The finished appearance of where it was given a gold medal Dewing's prizewinning work The in 1908. A writer for the New York Necklace (fig. 6) contrasts mark- Times observed, "In a measure it edly with the freely painted Alma. is impresionistic [sic] ... but it is In The Necklace Dewing set him- at the same time profoundly self aesthetic challenges in the studied." Noting this juxtaposition rendering of fabric and the use of of freedom and precision in palette. He painted complicated Dewing's work, critics periodically folds of diaphanous silk and bro- commented that Dewing's method cade, while his likeness of Alma of achieving this effect could not features casually draped, rough be analyzed. "How he accom-

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 6 The Necklace, ca. 1907. Oil on wood, 20 x 153/4 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of John Gellatly

6a As a tonalist Dewing used essentially the same pigment throughout the entire painting; this autoradiograph, fourth in a series of eleven, shows the overall darkening produced by zinc. The painting's predominant green tonality is due to the presence of chromium, identified by X-ray fluorescence. Although Dewing finished the figure's head and shoulders with fine stippling, he made very few changes in the skirt, where he allowed his ebauche to show on the painting's surface and play a positive role in the finished design. plishes his results is quite beyond silk dress (fig. 6a). Dewing painted the ken of the observer," one of the underdress first, for the folds them asserted.14 that cross the sitter's lap extend As a tonalist employing a underneath the outer garment. narrow range of colors, Dewing After thinly sketching in long, di- placed great importance on first agonal shadows, Dewing, by way establishing the light and dark of contrast, rendered the pale areas of his painting. In The Neck- stripes of the open coat in thickly lace, light flesh tones capture the applied pigments. Unlike his eye, drawing it first to the head Alma, Dewing completed his fig- and shoulders and then down ure's garment with delicate glazes to the pale pattern that runs and stippling. For the most part, throughout the skirt. Dewing's however, he allowed his under- method of laying in the lights and painting to show on the surface, 6b (opposite) This detail shows how Dewing darks is illustrated in the autoradi- particularly in the lower portions scattered tiny strokes of multicolored pigment over the surface of his sitter's ograph, in which the artist's of the outer dress, where he left shoulders and throughout her face, thereby ebauche is clearly visible in the the white lead ground to function adding vibrancy to her flesh tones. crisscrossed folds of the gauzy, as the brightest highlights.

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms II~

This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 7 Lady Listening, ca. 1910. Oil on wood, 23 x 187/8 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Nelson C. White

The autoradiograph shows that he employed to model Alma's Dewing blocked in the back- face-to depict her head and ground around the sitter's head shoulders. One gallery-goer con- and shoulders with short, staccato jectured that by using these tiny, brush strokes of dark blue-green staccato strokes, Dewing achieved pigment, now evident only along "depth and vibratory sensation in the edges of the panel. Scarcely [the] flesh tint."'6 These little visible in the composition, this un- dashes of the brush, which under derpainting nevertheless adds the microscope appear as minia- depth and resonance to the com- ture crosshatching, form patch- pleted work. The Necklace re- works of cool, gray hues that in minded one critic of the shimmer turn tone and soften the harsher "one gets in certain old potteries orange and pink stippling under with hints of splendor in their them (fig. 6b). A halo-shaped blunted lustres."15 shadow, possibly inspired by Although he allowed himself a Vermeer's noted halations, extends measure of freedom in rendering beyond the model's face. Although his model's costume, Dewing la- Dewing's application differs from boriously used stippling-in con- Vermeer's, his use of stippling trast to the fine hatching strokes may also have been inspired by

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 7a This autoradiograph, third in a series of the Dutch painter, who applied Dewing's increased "experimenta- eleven, shows an earlier figure framed by tiny dots of impasto as a means tions ... and researches," particu- an architecturalfeature at the far left. of indicating light reflected from larly in the use of surface texture.18 jewelry, furniture, and other Lady Listening, painted directly 7b This autoradiograph, sixth in the series, after the exhibition, testifies to shows that Dewing painted over the first burnished objects.'7 And like figure with sketchlike strokes. He Vermeer, Dewing completed the Dewing's increasing experimenta- subsequently painted a new figure placed hands of his figure with great care tion (fig. 7). Autoradiographs show similarly to the one seen today, roughly and precision. Even though he that it may have gone through two outlining her chair and painting a halo of laid them down briefly in his earlier versions before it was pigment beyond the upper body. Later he scratched out the head and shoulders, ebauche, as indicated by the auto- eventually shown in the Third Ex- repainting the figure but using portions of radiograph, he later painted each hibition of Oil Paintings by Con- the earlier chair and skirt. finger with exquisite finesse, al- temporary American Artists at the lowing the light and shadow to Corcoran Gallery of Art in Wash- define each joint. ington, D.C., from December 1910 In February 1910, Dewing ex- through January 1911. The first hibited a number of key works at figure, for example, was originally the Montross Gallery in New York. framed by an architectural feature It was a time when he looked not visible in the surface painting back at his achievements and for- (fig. 7a). An autoradiograph later ward to new accomplishments. in the series shows that Dewing One critic at the New York Times painted over this feature and the observed the artist's "growing first figure with what appear to be tendency to greater freedom and rapidly applied sketchlike strokes more ample treatment of form," (fig. 7b). He then painted a new while a writer for the Globe noted figure placed similarly to the one

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 8 Lady in White (No. 1), ca. 1916. Oil on canvas, 261/4 x 201/4 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift ofJohn Gellatly

seen today, using a quarter-inch of her shoulders using a rapid, brush to outline in an even and circular motion. He did not re- unfaltering stroke the arms and move the image cleanly, but left back of her chair. In this version small islands of residue pigment Dewing painted a halo of pigment behind. Painting over the partially beyond the upper body. He must removed figure, he rendered the have considered his work com- new head and shoulders seen plete for he signed it at the lower today, casting the model's delicate left, as revealed by infrared profile into shadow. He raised the reflectographs. chair back and used portions of Dewing then appears to have the earlier chair and skirt. The set the painting aside for some lower margin's prominent palette- time. When he returned to it, he knife work, as seen in the autora- apparently attacked his composi- diograph in figure 7b, however, tion with a vengeance, scratching does not relate to the folds in the out the model's head and portions dress and therefore may be associ-

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 9 Lady in White (No. 2), ca. 1913. Oil on canvas, 223/8 x 213/8 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of John Gellatly

ated with the earlier figures. To Lady in White (No. 1) and Lady in cover the extensive scratch marks, White (No. 2), although they prob- Dewing extended the halo, or ably were not painted in that nimbus, well beyond the figure. order (figs. 8, 9). Although the Finally, he painted over the earlier paintings may look similar and signature and signed just below it employ a similar pigment, autora- this third and final version of the diographs (figs. 8a, 9a) indicate painting. When it was exhibited, that they were painted very differ- Lady Listening was well received. ently. Dewing handled Lady in No mention was made of the cir- White (No. 1) boldly, unlike his cular scratches even though they relatively delicate treatment of are faintly visible in the Corcoran's Lady in White (No. 2). He worked catalogue reproduction. the background of Lady in White (No. 1) by laying on the pigment

Later Works in vigorous vertical strokes, which he then smoothed and blurred Several years after completing with a light, horizontal, sweeping Lady Listening, Dewing painted a gesture. He applied shadows be- series of profile figures which he hind the mirror with a finer sold to Gellatly in the mid teens. brush, using small, upright dashes. Two of these works were so much In Lady in White (No. 2) he ap- alike that Gellatly called them pears to have sponged pigment

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms onto the right-hand side of the by the deep glazes on these ce- canvas to achieve a diaphanous ef- ramics, as he seems to have emu- fect and then added thicker diag- lated their variegated surfaces in onal passages at the left. Despite the pigments of his own paintings. these differences, the mottled One critic was prompted to sug- backgrounds of both works gest that Lady in White (No. 1) was shimmer in a manner reminiscent "almost a theorem" and to ex- of the oriental celadon ware that claim, "Dewing might have been a Dewing occasionally bought at Chinese potter."19 As evident in auction for his patron Charles Lady in White (No. 2), Dewing en- Lang Freer (1854-1919). Like his joyed depicting such pottery in his close friend and fellow artist own paintings. In this case, autora- Dwight W. Tryon (1849-1925), diographs show that the artist ex- Dewing may have been inspired perimented with several versions

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 8a, 9a Lady in White (No. 1), left, and Lady in White (No. 2) are quintessentially tonalist works in that one pigment or combination of pigments produce the overall darkening of the film, as seen in these autoradiographs, both fourth in series of eleven and twelve, respectively. Yet Dewing used his pigment differently in each canvas. Broadly applied swaths of paint create the effect of taffeta or heavy silk in Lady in White (No. 1), while long, disengaged strokes in Lady in White (No. 2) give the impression of cascading lace.

of the vase before settling on its sketched in the dress of Lady in present contours. White (No. 1), allowing the lead In painting the garments in ground to show through as a these portraits, Dewing varied his white highlight in areas of the paint application to achieve dif- dress and around the periphery of ferent effects. He rendered the the figure. Even more of this lead dress of Lady in White (No. 1) ground is visible through the paint with wide swaths of pigment to strokes in Lady in White (No. 2). suggest a crisp, heavy fabric. In Dewing may have then strength- Lady in White (No. 2) he applied ened these bright white passages long, thin disengaged strokes, with the additional application of along with shorter dabs of paint. lead white on the surface of the These seemingly haphazard and garment. sometimes oddly shaped brush- In all his paintings, Dewing's marks create the visual equivalent handling of the head-the most of lace cascading from his sitter's challenging portion of the lap. So thinly applied is the paint figure-is distinctive. His style that it seems wafted onto the changed over time and was highly canvas. In fact, the ebauche itself influenced by whether he painted remains as the finished work in on panel or canvas.20 This is amply both paintings. Dewing freely demonstrated by an examination

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 9b This detail of Lady in White (No. 2) shows how Dewing used the canvas to break up his brush strokes.

of three works from one decade Achieving an effect similar to that of his career. When he painted in The Necklace, Dewing used the Alma circa 1905, Dewing modeled canvas to break up his paint his sitter's handsome profile in the strokes, catching the nubs of the classic manner by placing fine canvas weave as he dotted in pig- hatching strokes along the side of ment with the tip of his brush. In her cheek. With the exception of a some areas such as the throat and few small, broken strokes around under the cheekbone, he left the her eyes, the overall effect is canvas's primer uncovered. Be- smooth and sculptural (see fig. cause this exposed area is darker 5b). Several years later, in exe- than the surface paint, it functions cuting The Necklace, Dewing al- as a shadow, as does the primed tered his style considerably by canvas around the sitter's head, applying a fine stippling over the creating an atmospheric aura face and shoulders of his model around her. (see fig. 6b). By breaking up the In Lady with a Rose, this type of flesh tones with tiny flecks of paint delicate work is covered by heavy that radiate beyond some portions veils of darkened pigment that ob- of the figure, Dewing provided a scure the former beauty of the shimmering atmosphere around painting (fig. 10). Sold by the artist his subject. This handling was nec- to a private collector in 1924, the essary given the smooth nature of canvas had become progressively the prepared panel, whereas in darker over time, particularly Lady in White (No. 2) the support around the sitter's head, probably itself contributes to Dewing's ap- the result of reworking by the plication of paint (fig. 9b). artist. The initial ebauche, how-

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 10 Lady with a Rose, ca. 1915-24. Oil on ever, as revealed by autoradiog- also altered her coiffure, dress, canvas, 24 x 20 in. National Museum of raphy, indicates that some forty and the chair on which she sits. American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Nelson C. White years after he had studied in Paris at the Academie Julian, Dewing lOa This autoradiograph, seventh in a series of still followed the academic 's paintings fell ten, reveals the initial ebauche. method he had learned in his out of fashion under the onslaught youth (fig. 10a). The artist deli- of modern art after the Armory cately sketched in his figure, thinly Show of 1913. By the early 1920s rubbing in the folds of her gar- audiences expected social com- ment. He rendered her form with mentary or bright colors and ab- the utmost delicacy, applying the straction in works of art rather paint so thinly that the canvas than uniform subjects distin- shows through. He then applied guished only by highly refined thick vertical and horizontal pal- subtleties. Even as recently as 1980 ette-knife work, bringing the back- a prominent scholar commented, ground up to and around the "Once the dominant subject and figure. The autoradiograph indi- form of [Dewing's] art was deter- cates that the figure originally mined, about 1890, little change sat with her hands folded, her or development seems discern- youthful face in profile and her able."21 Autoradiography and X-ray body turned toward the viewer. radiography reveal, however, that Apparently seeking a more dy- the form of Dewing's work em- namic and sophisticated image, braced considerable variety. Not Dewing later reworked the canvas, one to work routinely, Dewing ap- shifting his sitter's pose away from plied paint differently from one the viewer, raising her arm, and picture to another, blending his giving her aquiline features. He individual style with a repertory of

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms images drawn from sources as di- sense of freedom also applied to verse as Vermeer, Whistler, and his palette, for he was not bound the Old Masters.22 Throughout his by certain favored pigments. In re- career he recapitulated his artistic working passages, he often used sources, reaching out to them as if entirely different components, to make contact with great works matching them by color rather from the past. Sometimes he ren- than pigment. dered his own version of tradi- Yet, despite this relative tional subjects, as he did in Tobias freedom in his work habits and and the Angel. On other occa- his obvious love of experimenta- sions, responding to new tech- tion, Dewing was a traditionalist niques and influences, he sought both technically and stylistically. to update an earlier work. Lady in Adhering to the lessons of the White (No. 1) and Lady in White Academie Julian throughout his (No. 2), for example, look decep- career, he employed the classic tively similar on the surface but ebauche to block in his paintings. are very different underneath, and As his works became looser and they illustrate Dewing's versatility more thinly rendered, Dewing still and control as an artist. Searching maintained this fundamental mode for fresh and new ways of creating of working, ultimately allowing the his effects, Dewing employed dif- ebauche itself to be the finished ferent means of achieving what painting. appear to be the same ends. This

Notes

Research was carried out by the Smith- Angel, revealing that dramatic changes sonian Institution's Conservation Analytical had occurred during execution. Laboratory with additional support from the Smithsonian's Scholar Studies Program 2 [Charles H. Caffin], untitled clipping, using the facilities of the Reactor Division [New York] Sun, 1 March 1907, scrap- of the National Institute of Standards and book of exhibition reviews, Archives Technology. During various stages of the of the and the project the authors were assisted by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian following conservators, physical scientists, Institution, Washington D.C. (hereafter photographers, and art historians: Doreen cited as Freer scrapbook), p. 25, re- Bolger, Elizabeth Broun, Roland H. ferred to Dewing's "prodigies of pol- Cunningham, Harold E. Doughterty, ished paint"; "Art and Artists," clip- Melanie Feather, the late Joan Mishara, ping, [New York] Globe, 5 January Diane L. Nordeck, Charles H. Olin, Quentin 1906, Freer scrapbook, p. 20, admired Rankin, Jr., Edward V. Sayre, Steffano the artist as a colorist "who sweeps on Scafetta, William H. Truettner, and his pigment ... with a wizard's brush"; Timothy Vitale. Ezra Tharp, "T. W. Dewing," Art and Progress 5 (March 1914): 155-61, 1 Other than autoradiography, tech- claimed the artist could hide his tech- niques used included X-ray radiog- nique, making his work appear as raphy, examination with ultraviolet though it had been done "with the light, infrared reflectography, X-ray flu- magic hand of chance." See also "The orescence, cross-section analysis using Ten Bolters," New York Times, 19 the scanning electron microscope March 1901, p. 9, which envisions a (SEM), and microscopic examination "vista of pencil drawing and hours of of the paintings. We determined that absorbing labor" in Dewing's work. infrared reflectography did not reveal the underdrawings in Dewing's 3 For this quotation and a discussion of paintings. the ebauche, see Albert Boime, The Interest in applying autoradiography Academy and French Painting in the to Dewing's works first arose in 1975, Nineteenth Century (London: Phaidon, when Brookhaven National Laboratory 1971), p. 88. Boime, p. 200, n. 12, indi- autogradiographed Tobias and the cates that there were two kinds of

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This content downloaded from 160.111.254.17 on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:23:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ebauches: one rubbed in thinly, the with the diluted earth colour to 18 "Rare Paintings in New Galleries," other more opaque in application. achieve the general effect.... The New York Times,4O February 1910, p. pupil was advised to begin immedi- 6, also included the following observa- 4 Yu-tarng Cheng et al., "Modification of ately indicating the 'tint or value of the tion: "The refinement of the crafts- the National Bureau of Standards Re- background.' The artist thus painted manship is so notable that the intense search Reactor for Neutron-Induced background and figure simultaneously significance of his work, the classic Autoradiography of Paintings," in Ap- while executing the ebauche." quality persisting through the nervous plication of Science in Examination of elegance of modern technique, fre- Works of Art (Boston: Research Labo- 10 "Society of American Artists' Exhibi- quently is overlooked." "Art and Art- ratory, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, tion," Art Age 5 (June 1887): 68. ists," clipping, [New York] Globe, 4 1985), pp. 182-89; see table 1 for a Dewing called the painting Tobit and February 1909, Freer scrapbook, p. 30, typical series of films. See also the Angel in his letter to Charles Lang also noted that "Mr. Dewing has of re- Jacqueline S. Olin et al., "An Examina- Freer, [1899], no. 149, Archives of the cent years paid great attention to sur- tion of Neutron Autoradiography and Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. faces and in some mysterious way of Gamma Spectroscopy for the Study of Sackler Gallery. It was recently retitled manipulating his pigment has secured Paintings," Materials Issues in Art and by Doreen Bolger Burke in American astonishing textures." Archaeology 123 (1988): 33-38. Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Mu- 19 "Canvases of Dewing One of Exhibits 5 Undated, handwritten fragment by seum of Art, 1980), 3:120-22, as it was Now Attracting Attention," clipping, Dewing's unidentified studio mate, Tobias who followed the angel, not Pittsburgh Post, 24 February 1924, Elizabeth Dewing Kaup Papers, Ar- his father, Tobit. Dewing may have scrapbook, Carnegie Museum of Art Li- chives of American Art, Smithsonian made no distinction between the two brary, Pittsburgh, Pa. On Tryon, see Institution, Washington, D.C.; Tharp, names. Henry C. White, The Life and Art of "Dewing," pp. 160-61. (New York: 11 "The Society of American Artists," Art Houghton Mifflin, 1930), pp. 171-72. 6 Arthur Wesley Dow, diary, 5 No- Amateur 17 (June 1887): 5, indicates vember 1884, Archives of American that the changes had occurred by 20the Dewing worked extensively on pre- Art, roll 1079, frame 691. See also the time Dewing exhibited Tobias and the pared Winsor & Newton panels during entry for 20 December 1884, frame Angel. the early part of his career. He con- 679, where Dow reported that tinued to use a solid support often 12 Ibid. LeFebvre said to "make my shadows from 1900 to 1910, but according to follow the outline." See also DeWitt Nelson C. White, whose father bought McClellan Lockman's interview of 13 Boime, Academy and French Painting, p. 157. Lady with a Rose, Dewing became in- Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Archives creasingly worried about the way the of American Art, roll 503, frame 330, 14 "Native Artists Lead in Carnegie Ex- panels cracked. Consequently, for Hassam's account of the approach hibit," clipping, New York Times, 3 throughout the later years of his ca- to painting taught at the Academie May 1908, p. 8, Freer scrapbook, p. 27; reer, he turned to canvas as a secure Julian. Arthur Hoeber, "The Ten Americans," support. Nelson C. White, interview International Studio 35 (July 1908): with author, 31 January 1989. 7 Philippe Grunchec, The Grand Prix de xxiv. Rome: Paintings from the Ecole des 21 William H. Gerdts, American Impres- Beaux-Arts, 1797-1863 (Washington, 15 Clipping, New York Times, 19 April sionism (Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, D.C.: International Exhibitions Founda- 1908, Freer scrapbook, p. 27. University of Washington, 1980), p. 23. tion, 1984-85), p. 25. In his own day Dewing received abun- 16 "M's New Gallery," clipping, unidenti- dant praise for his exquisite use of 8 We are indebted to Albert Boime for fied newspaper, 3 February 1910, color and the elegance of his subjects. proposing this concept in a discussion Freer scrapbook, p. 35. Even so, otherwise admiring writers during August 1988. See also Boime, often mentioned "characteristic 17 See Judith Elizabeth Lyczko, "Thomas Academy and French Painting, pp. themes," which they sometimes found Wilmer Dewing's Sources: Women in 40-41. It is not known when Dewing repetitive. See, for example, J.N.L., Interiors," Arts Magazine 54 (No- changed the ruff or why the paint "The Ten Americans," Boston Evening wrinkled in this area. vember 1979): 152-53. Hofstede de Transcript, 18 March 1913, p. 11, re- Groot's catalogue raisonne of Ver- garding the monotony and repetitive- 9 Dewing, quoted in Tharp, "Dewing," meer's oeuvre was published in 1905; ness of his "stippled stain of faded p. 159; Leni Potoff, "Conservation Dewing's patron colors"; and "Art Notes," [New York] Treatment Report" (Intermuseum Con- sent him the three-volume work in in- Evening Post, 20 March 1915, p. 8, dis- servation Laboratory, Oberlin, Ohio, stallments over the next two years, so cussing "the limitations the artist set 17 September 1981), unpaginated. Dewing was undoubtedly familiar with for himself long ago." Boime, Academy and French Painting, reproductions of Vermeer's Lady with p. 40, elaborates: "The student began a Pearl Necklace (ca. 1665, Staatliche 22 Lyczko, "Dewing's Sources," pp. painting by massing in the shadows Museen Berlin Dahlem). 152-57.

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