Thomas Wilmer Dewing
Date of birth: 1851.05.04
Place of birth: Newton Lower Falls, MA
Date of death: 1938.11.05
Place of death: New York, NY
Category: painter
Identity:
Thomas Wilmer Dewing was a painter of women in interiors.
Life:
Dewing studied with Jules Lefèbvre and Gustave Boulanger at the Académie Julian in Paris. From this background he went on to develop an art reminiscent of Albert Moore and Whistler in his focus on tonal studies of elegantly draped women in melancholy, dream-like interiors. He returned to the US in 1878 and from 1881 taught at the Art Students League in New York. In 1898 he became a leading member of the Ten Painters, a secessionist group of painters who disagreed with the exhibition policies of organisations such as the Society of American Artists.
Notable examples of his work are in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Charles Lang Freer having been the principal patron of both Whistler and Dewing. Furthermore he advised and helped Freer in the purchase of works by Whistler.
Bibliography:
Anderson, Ross C., 'Thomas Wilmer Dewing,' Grove Dictionary of Art Online; American National Biography, New York, 1999; Hobbs, S. and Gallati, B.D., The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured, Washington DC, 1996. 'Thomas Wilmer Dewing', Freer Gallery of Art website.
