1904, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, The Lute -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: The Boston-born Dewing is best known for his ethereal scenes of women rendered in a tonalist style. Drawing on the influence of James McNeill Whistler and other sources, Dewing presented his audiences with an intellectual ideal of beauty signified metaphorically as the female figure in a poetic, super-worldly space. In The Lute, a bare and austere interior provides the setting for a woman dressed in golden tones. Caught in a moment of reflection, unaware of the viewer's presence, she leans slightly toward the lute, her form melding with the instrument in mutual affiliation. The inclusion of a musical device--what Whistler likewise interpreted as a medium of poetry--reinforces the aura of heightened sensibility.
1904, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, The Lute -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: The Boston-born Dewing is best known for his ethereal scenes of women rendered in a tonalist style. Drawing on the influence of James McNeill Whistler and other sources, Dewing presented his audiences with an intellectual ideal of beauty signified metaphorically as the female figure in a poetic, super-worldly space. In The Lute, a bare and austere interior provides the setting for a woman dressed in golden tones. Caught in a moment of reflection, unaware of the viewer's presence, she leans slightly toward the lute, her form melding with the instrument in mutual affiliation. The inclusion of a musical device--what Whistler likewise interpreted as a medium of poetry--reinforces the aura of heightened sensibility.