Lot Essay
A masterful draftsman and exquisite colorist, Thomas Wilmer Dewing created some of America's most serenely beautiful paintings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lady Listening, which was executed by Dewing about 1910, exhibits the stippling and fine brushwork characteristic of his mature works. The face of the sitter is cast in shadow, while the highlights of the fleshtone in the cheek and neck are tipped in with pointillist dots of color, set off with contrasting opalescent hues of blue and green. A taupe background forms a nimbus around the figure, who is seated in a wicker Canton chair of the sort popular in the artist colony in Cornish, New Hampshire, where Dewing lived at the turn of the century.
Ssuan Hobbs writes, "Dewing's artfully posed figures and subtly related color harmonies evoke a dream world in which time and logic play no role. They demonstrate his contention that the purpose of the artist is to 'see beautifully.' Yet, the sophistication and ambiguity of Dewing's subjects extend beyond their beauty and have led to a remarkable variety of interpretations. In his own day, these images reminded some viewers of the lonely, enigmatic heroines of Henry James. Others connected the aestheticized figures with the highly vaunted New Woman, a creature whose health, beauty, and vitality were the pride of the nation. Dewing himself sought in them a particularized vision of loveliness that was 'just sour enough to save it.'" (Beauty Reconfigured: The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Brooklyn, New York, 1996, p. 1)
Lady Listening was first exhibited at the Third Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Contemporary American Artists at the Corcoran Gallery from December 1910 until January 1911; in the spring of that year Dewing again chose to exhibit the painting, this time at an exhibition of The Ten at the Montross Gallery in New York.
The painting received fine reviews in the press and in several periodicals where writers praised the workmanship of the artist. For example The Boston Transcript described the painting as a "harmony in dull golds, grays and faded pinks, stippled with the meticulous care of the miniaturist." The critic continued, "It attracts by its very evasiveness, wooing you by its almost self-effacing reticence and its serene distinction that is not flustered by the blare of prismatic trumpets." (The Boston Transcript, March 23, 1911) Dewing's friend, the critic Royal Cortissoz, mentioned its "uncommonly free and broad handling" and remarked on the figure's "voluminous draperies." ("Art Exhibitions," New York Tribune, March 21, 1911) The critic for The American Art News observed that Lady Listening was a "charming production in yellow and grayish tones, the figure of the lady fuller and more healthy than customary," while Academy Notes said the painting was a "lovely study in deep grays and delicate pink." The writer went on to praise Dewing further, noting the artist's "workmanship [which] is as delicate and earnest as ever, and the quality even richer." ("Exhibitions Now On," Academy Notes, vol. 9, March 25, 1911, p. 3; also, vol. 6, 1911, p. 51)
Lady Listening retains its original grille-type frame designed by Stanford White. Dewing and White were artistic collaborators as well as close friends. "Tommy" and "Stanny," as they called each other, shared many interests, devoting themselves to beauty and its expression. It was only natural then that White would design frames for Dewing's paintings, as the frames enhanced the paintings' particular aesthetic qualities. Susan Hobbs has written, "a distinctive grille-type frame designed by White and used by Dewing on most of his later works came to be known as the 'Dewing frame.' No two examples are exactly alike. Some moldings, many of which are ogee shaped, angle toward the painting, whereas others slant away from it. A leaf-and-berry design borders the inner margin, and a delicate grille covers the outer cove surface. Producing a 'suggestion of gray,' this particular frame set off a painting better, in Dewing's opinion, than any other border ever designed. Early versions were made by applying a freestanding grille, composed of four-to-five inch sections of wire mesh dipped in gesso, to a highly burnished, water-gilded surface. The grille was then gilded with Roman bronze powder to create a matte finish. When light penetrates the grille, it bounces off the burnished cove and reflects back through the mesh toward the viewer. The result is a dancing, shimmer of gold that enhances the muted qualities of Dewing's works." (Beauty Reconfigured, p. 83)
Ssuan Hobbs writes, "Dewing's artfully posed figures and subtly related color harmonies evoke a dream world in which time and logic play no role. They demonstrate his contention that the purpose of the artist is to 'see beautifully.' Yet, the sophistication and ambiguity of Dewing's subjects extend beyond their beauty and have led to a remarkable variety of interpretations. In his own day, these images reminded some viewers of the lonely, enigmatic heroines of Henry James. Others connected the aestheticized figures with the highly vaunted New Woman, a creature whose health, beauty, and vitality were the pride of the nation. Dewing himself sought in them a particularized vision of loveliness that was 'just sour enough to save it.'" (Beauty Reconfigured: The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Brooklyn, New York, 1996, p. 1)
Lady Listening was first exhibited at the Third Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Contemporary American Artists at the Corcoran Gallery from December 1910 until January 1911; in the spring of that year Dewing again chose to exhibit the painting, this time at an exhibition of The Ten at the Montross Gallery in New York.
The painting received fine reviews in the press and in several periodicals where writers praised the workmanship of the artist. For example The Boston Transcript described the painting as a "harmony in dull golds, grays and faded pinks, stippled with the meticulous care of the miniaturist." The critic continued, "It attracts by its very evasiveness, wooing you by its almost self-effacing reticence and its serene distinction that is not flustered by the blare of prismatic trumpets." (The Boston Transcript, March 23, 1911) Dewing's friend, the critic Royal Cortissoz, mentioned its "uncommonly free and broad handling" and remarked on the figure's "voluminous draperies." ("Art Exhibitions," New York Tribune, March 21, 1911) The critic for The American Art News observed that Lady Listening was a "charming production in yellow and grayish tones, the figure of the lady fuller and more healthy than customary," while Academy Notes said the painting was a "lovely study in deep grays and delicate pink." The writer went on to praise Dewing further, noting the artist's "workmanship [which] is as delicate and earnest as ever, and the quality even richer." ("Exhibitions Now On," Academy Notes, vol. 9, March 25, 1911, p. 3; also, vol. 6, 1911, p. 51)
Lady Listening retains its original grille-type frame designed by Stanford White. Dewing and White were artistic collaborators as well as close friends. "Tommy" and "Stanny," as they called each other, shared many interests, devoting themselves to beauty and its expression. It was only natural then that White would design frames for Dewing's paintings, as the frames enhanced the paintings' particular aesthetic qualities. Susan Hobbs has written, "a distinctive grille-type frame designed by White and used by Dewing on most of his later works came to be known as the 'Dewing frame.' No two examples are exactly alike. Some moldings, many of which are ogee shaped, angle toward the painting, whereas others slant away from it. A leaf-and-berry design borders the inner margin, and a delicate grille covers the outer cove surface. Producing a 'suggestion of gray,' this particular frame set off a painting better, in Dewing's opinion, than any other border ever designed. Early versions were made by applying a freestanding grille, composed of four-to-five inch sections of wire mesh dipped in gesso, to a highly burnished, water-gilded surface. The grille was then gilded with Roman bronze powder to create a matte finish. When light penetrates the grille, it bounces off the burnished cove and reflects back through the mesh toward the viewer. The result is a dancing, shimmer of gold that enhances the muted qualities of Dewing's works." (Beauty Reconfigured, p. 83)