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Thomas Wilmer Dewing: a Look Beneath the Surface

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Thomas Wilmer Dewing: a Look Beneath the Surface 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 Paris. 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 63 Smithsonian Studies in American Art 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 i '' i?4 z e%: :i i i :-i i : : : -I-; i: 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 1 Portrait of Frances L. Houston, ca. 1880-89. Oil on canvas, 195/8 x 1414 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 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 64 Summer/Fall 1990 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 Boston'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- 65 Smithsonian Studies in American Art 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- United States 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 New York City, 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 66 Summer/Fall 1990 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 67 Smithsonian Studies in American Art 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.
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