Lot Essay
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851, Thomas Wilmer Dewing trained at the Académie Julian in Paris during the 1870s before eventually settling in New York City and taking annual trips to the artist's colony in Cornish, New Hampshire. Dewing is primarily known for his masterful, ethereal depictions of elegant women in moody interiors, and the present work is no exception. Likely painted as a pendant to his Lilac Dress (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), the present work depicts the sitter in the same flowing, pale purple gown. Of this work, Susan A. Hobbs writes, "The model strikes a bold pose, with her arm thrown over the back of the chair. The gesture is casual...Yet, for all of the painting's modernity, Dewing retained the aloofness of his subject by illuminating only one side of her face. The strong light leaves the other half dark and inscrutable. This sense of mystery is abetted by shadow effects that cascade along the wall and throughout the lower portion of the canvas." (Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Beauty into Art: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, New Haven, Connecticut, 2018, p. 566) Indeed, Dewing's command over the effects of light beautifully illuminates the purple lace of the woman's tea dress, subtly juxtaposing the shadows of her face—a technique also seen in Lilac Dress.