A Tribute to Tonalism

On the Occasion of George Inness' 192nd Birthday
(or, I Bet You Will Not Be Surprised I Love the Tonalists...)

by Jennifer L. Hoffman

Note: This post is going up a bit late for April due to a series of technological issues, but the delay makes this post even more timely;  George Inness was born May 1, 1825.  If you aren't familiar with Inness' work, he was one of the primary influences on the Tonalists, one of my favorite movements in art history. (You can see another of my favorite Inness paintings here; I recently got to see this painting in person at the Art Institute of Chicago!  Unfortunately I am not able to reproduce it on the blog due to usage restrictions, but it is worth a click.)

George Inness, Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey, c. 1891, oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas, 29 x 45 1/4 in.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of George A. Hearn, in memory of Arthur Hoppack Hearn, 1911.

What is Tonalism?

Tonalism was an American art style that emerged in the 1880s, a movement of poetic, mystical, spiritual paintings - mostly landscapes - of a subtle, ethereal quality.  The palette of most works was harmonious yet reserved in color.  Shapes were often soft-edged; scenes appeared as if viewed through a veil of atmosphere.  Value shifts tended to be very gentle - big contrasts or bright light were avoided. Dawn, dusk, and night scenes of marsh, ocean, and meadow were favored motifs in Tonalist works.

Influences

The approach was an outgrowth from and a reaction to the Barbizon School, a French movement that rejected classical idealism in favor of depicting reality (see Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet) and Impressionism, which was focused primarily on depicting color and light over form (see Claude Monet, Willard Metcalf).  

Many of the adopters of the Tonalist style were heavily influenced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the American expatriate whose work favored composition, abstraction, and tone over literal interpretation, much like a piece of music.  His artwork titles often referenced music, choosing words like arrangement, nocturne, symphony, variations, and harmony.  Whistler’s work broke significantly from the Impressionists of the day and caught the attention of young American painters. His nocturnes cross into otherworldy impressions; form and atmosphere are fused in a deceptively simple way that appears transient. In the introduction to his magnificent book, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, Marc Simpson explains, "Softly painted art allows the observer to revel in the world's ambiguous edges, to feel the manifold potential of a perception...."1

James Abbott MacNeill Whistler, Nocturne, c. 1875-1880, oil on canvas, 12 1/4 x 20 3/8 in.  Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection ,1917.

Often called the “Father of American Landscape Painting,” George Inness (1825-1894) was an intellectual and philosophical force in the art world and arguably the first to work in the Tonalist style. Born in New York, during his early career he created paintings documenting the expansion of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, depicting the landscape alongside industrial development.  As his style matured, he eschewed the industrial for more natural scenes of wilderness and farmland around the northeast.  He felt a strong spiritual connection to the landscape through his work.  In an interview with Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Inness stated, "The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature, and secondly, to enter as a factor in general civilization."2

Tonalists in Their Own Words and Images

Lowell Birge Harrison
In 1909, Birge Harrison published a book titled simply Landscape Painting which detailed his thought process and approach to creating a painting.  He coined the term refraction to describe how the edges of forms interact and, through the lens of the human eye, become vague and indistinct.  He recounted this story in the book:

A gentleman of marked intelligence and culture once berated me for what he termed the artist's impudence in giving to the public a smudge of greenish-brown or of gray up against the sky and asking them to accept it as a tree. "Why," he said, "I can see every leaf on that oak tree in the meadow yonder. And so can anyone whose eyesight is normal."

My reply to this was to pin a card to one of the oak's lower branches and ask my friend, standing at ten paces, to tell me how many leaves he could count without shifting his gaze from the white card.
"Well, by Jove!" he presently exclaimed, "I can't count up to fifty!"
"What do the rest of the leaves look like," I asked, "a more or less indefinite blur?"
"Yes! Just a blur." "Well," I said, " now you understand just a little of the meaning of the word refraction."3

Lowell Birge Harrison, Sunburst at Sea, c. 1913-14, pastel and graphite on paper, 27 3/8 x 30 in.  The Johnson Collection.

Dwight William Tryon

Dwight Tryon had a love affair with the landscape of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, which he painted repeatedly throughout his career.  Revisiting an intimately observed and experienced subject is one of my fondest inspirations, and so I feel a kinship with Tryon's work (he also worked frequently in pastel).  Linda Merrill explains this tendency in An Ideal Country:

Certainly the object of his affection (a "dreary waste of upland or meadow," as one critic described the landscape) would not appear to inspire devotion, but "entire familiarity with all the physical facts must precede an understanding of the higher truths," Tryon maintained.  Art he defined as "love and sympathy with some near and homely thing."4

Dwight Tryon, Sunrise: April, c. 1897-1899, oil on canvas, 20 1/6 x 30 1/6 in.  Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Langdon Freer.

Did you know?
Charles Lang Freer, the American industrialist, was an avid collector of Asian art and was a patron of many of the Tonalists. His extensive collections formed the heart of the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Click here for a slideshow of Dwight Tryon's works in the Freer collection

.

Charles Warren Eaton

Charles Warren Eaton remains an enigmatic member of the Tonalists.  Unlike many of his contemporaries, there are few interviews and personal letters, and no journals or writings to illuminate his inner thoughts.  But Eaton's distinctive, poetic compositions and sensitive light need little explanation.  In the book Charles Warren Eaton: Intimate Landscapes and the Tonalist Movement in American Art 1880-1920, David A. Cleveland asserts that Eaton was an avid poetry reader, "especially William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was known as the 'night' and 'twightlight' poet."5  I think that influence translates in his work.  Eaton worked in a variety of media, including oil, pastel, and printmaking.  I have included one of his wonderful monotypes below!

Charles Warren Eaton, Afterglow, n. d., oil on panel, 10 x 8 in.  Private collection.

Charles Warren Eaton, Landscape, c. 1910, monotype on wove paper, 7-13/16 x 6-9/16 in.  National Gallery of Art, gift of Jacob Kainen.

Gertrude Käsebier
There were several Tonalist photographers in the movement including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Gertrude Käsebier. Käsebier was one of the few artists who was not from the northeast US. Born in Fort Des Moines, she moved with her family to Golden in the Colorado Territory at the age of 8, though she later moved to Pennsylvania. Her foray into art began in midlife; she attended Pratt Institute at the age of 37. One of the few Tonalist artists focused on portraiture, she also actively promoted photography as a career path for women, establishing the Women's Professional Photographers' Association of America in 1910. I am intrigued both by her imagery and her independent spirit!

Gertrude Kasebier, The Sketch, c. 1903, platinum print, 6 x 8-1/8 in.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Stieglitz collection, 1933.

If you've seen my artwork before, you are probably not at all surprised that tonalist art has been influential on my approach to painting.  If you haven't, feel free to click over to my page at www.triofineart.com and see if you can recognize their influence on my work.  

Do you have a favorite period in art history?  Is there an artist that appeals to you more than others?  Please share with us in the comments!

This is only the briefest introduction to the Tonalist movement.  There are many more artists to explore.  I have included a bibliography and other suggested reading if you want to delve further into this inspiring and poetic period of art history.

___________________________
Footnotes:

1. Marc Simpson, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly (Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2008), 6.
2. Adrienne Baxter Bell, Ed., George Inness: Writings and Reflections on Art and Philosophy (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 2006), 67.
3. Asher B. Durand & Birge Harrison, Landscape Painting combined reprint of Durand Letters on Landscape Painting & Harrison Landscape Painting (Minneapolis: Velatura Press, LLC, 2013), 76.
4. Linda Merrill, An Ideal Country: Paintings by Dwight William Tryon in the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990), 65-66.
5. David A. Cleveland, Intimate Landscapes: Charles Warren Eaton and the Tonalist Movement in American Art 1880-1920 (deMenil Gallery at Groton School, 2004), 33.

Other Suggested Reading:

• Ralph Sessions, The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism (New York: Spanierman Gallery, LLC, 2005).
• Joel Smith, Edward Steichen: the Early Years (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999).
• Robert H. Getscher, James Abbott McNeill Whistler: Pastels (New York: George Braziller, 1991)
• J. F. Heijbroek and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Holland (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1998).
• Arthur Wesley Dow, Composition (Berkely and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1997).

Our New Year's Wish for You - Dare to Make Mistakes!

Visitors pushing the boundaries of their comfort zones at Trio's Drawn Together workshop, December 2016.  Photo © Tammy Christel.

By Jennifer L. Hoffman

New Year's Eve is always an opportunity for reflection and anticipation.  As 2016 draws to its official close, I wanted to share something wonderful I recently stumbled across.  Below is an excerpt from writer Neil Gaiman's blog - his New Year's Eve musing from 5 years ago (mistakes intended!) - and it is just what we wish for you:

I hope that in this yearto come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are makingmistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things,learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing yourworld. You're doing things you've never done before, and moreimportantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you,and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Makeglorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worrythat it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art,or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you'rescared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, nextyear and forever.

-Neil Gaiman, 12/31/2011

When I was in elementary school, I took piano lessons for a number of years with a nearby musician.  I would go to her house each week and play the piece I was supposed to have learned the week before.  Because I was a timid and self-conscious child, I would play very quietly, especially the sections that I hadn't practiced enough or didn't know well.  One day, as I was bashfully plunking out notes, my teacher stopped me and said, "If you're going to make a mistake, make it a big one!"  While I never became a great pianist, I did learn an important life lesson that's stuck with me to this day.  You can't learn if you're afraid of mistakes!  Or, put another way, the only real mistake in life is not making any mistakes. 

As artists, we know intimately the difficulty and rewards of pushing our boundaries, trying something new, failing, and trying again!  So, on the eve of another New Year, we wish for you the gifts of imperfection, of bravery, of getting out of your comfort zone.  We wish for you laughter, and love, and connection, and beauty.  And most of all, we wish for you whatever little things bring you joy.

And thank you for all your encouraging support through our own mistakes and triumphs!

Happy 2017~

Jen, Bill, and Kathryn

The Trio: Jen, Bill, & Kathryn, wishing you all the best in 2017! Photo ©Kelsey Herbert.

Art and Motherhood

Professional Artist Mom - Is it a Myth or Can It Be Done?

My daughter, stuck in the car while I paint a nocturne.

Laura Alma-Tadema.  Rosa Bonheur.  Georgia O’Keeffe.  Frida Kahlo.  Mary Cassatt.  Cecelia Beaux.  Anna Hyatt Huntington.  Joan Mitchell.  

More than likely, you have heard many of those names.  What do they all have in common?  They are all female artists of the last 150 years who reached the highest echelons of artistic acclaim.  And none of them had children.

There is a commonly-held belief within the art community that to be a serious artist, one must devote oneself entirely to that pursuit.  Art can be an all-consuming profession – more of a calling than a job.  It can be difficult to maintain a relationship or a marriage when one is absorbed by the artistic impulse, not to mention raising children.  It is not an accident that there are many more men at the top levels of artistic success than there are women, and it has nothing to do with talent or commitment.  Many women put aside art (or other careers) to raise their children.  In the process, they lose ground and visibility in the art world (of course, there are men who fall into this category as well).  And while family roles have converged quite a bit in the 21^st Century, women still tend to be the primary caregivers in a home (See this graphic from the Pew Research Center which summarizes this trend: http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/201/06/FT_16.06.14_fathersDay_time_use.png). 

If that’s true, then am I being a dreamer to try to meet the demands of a professional art career while raising a daughter?  I don’t think I am.

Pursuing any career while raising children is a challenging undertaking.  Children require a lot of attention, love, guidance, and patience.  They get sick and share their germs.  They get hurt, grumpy, uncooperative.  They have temper tantrums and make big messes.  They need their noses blown, their diapers changed, their knees bandaged, their dinners made.  They need rides to and from their after-school activities, help with homework, fears reassured.  Whenever my schedule is the most tight, the least flexible, it is inevitable that there will be a missed bus, a sudden fever, or a sleepless night.  When things are running smoothly, there are still so many moving parts to our schedules that often, there is no chance I can get in the studio.  When I do get in the studio, it is often only for a few hours, and all the stopping and starting can make a painting take extra time to finish.  Oh yeah – and kids are EXPENSIVE.

But the flip side is this:

Inspecting a big Glover's silkmoth in the back yard.

Things we take for granted as adults are astonishing for children.  Spending time with my daughter is a chance to see the world anew.  Taking the same walk day after day can result in a continuous source of discovery and delight.  We get down on the ground and look under bushes and beneath rocks at a bug’s eye view.  We climb up cliffs and imagine we can fly.  We go dragon hunting and pet caterpillars, skip stones and sing to each other.

Children are inspiring in their level of curiosity and their capacity for creative thinking.  We as adults can get stuck in "the box," but kids don't even know there is a box.  Anything is possible in their minds when they are small.  Later, the magical thinking fades a bit, but the creativity comes out in lots of  other ways.  I have found it remarkable and surprising to watch how my daughter's uniqueness matures and changes as she grows.  

As the child of an artist, she is growing up immersed in the arts.  She’s been in galleries and museums since she was born.  She started coming to Galleries West with me when she was 8 weeks old (thanks to my beloved friends Bill & Debbie Bunch and Scott Nickell, who owned the gallery and who became like a second family for my daughter).  At the age of three, she was noticing the paintings on the walls of houses in television ads!  Here she is in Galleries West in front of one of my old still life paintings – she used to kiss the flowers through the glass:

How do babies' legs bend like that??

I get to share my passion for art in such a personal way.  Not all artists’ children are enthusiastic about making art themselves, but my daughter has relished drawing (and more recently, painting) since she was a tiny person.  We talk constantly about light, value, shadow, edges, color.  I love to hear her aesthetic observations, and it’s a special delight to watch her develop her own passions. Painting in plein air with her is extra fun.

I am inspired by my daughter in the visual sense, as well.  She has found herself the subject of drawings and paintings over the years, and I am certain there will be many more.

There are other ways I benefit directly.  I have a built in sidekick for art events, a great helper in the gallery and studio, and she has a fantastic eye for critiques.  She even likes to help carry gear when we paint outside!

L to R: A tiny sherpa, the 'red carpet' at the NMWA Western Visions show last year, mopping up at Trio.

A couple words of advice for any other young artists thinking about taking this path.  If you decide to be a career artist and a parent, accept that your productivity may be sporadic, but your inspiration will increase!  Accept that you will need help - from a spouse, a friend, family, or babysitters.  I know I couldn't meet many of my deadlines without my husband being able to take over the childcare on some weekends or picking up our daughter after swim practice when I'm finishing up a commission.  Accept that some deadlines will just not be achievable - but remember there will always be more!  And embrace the distractions.  It's only a brief time that I get to be this involved in my daughter's life, and it is such a wonderful experience.  I choose to look at this time of my life not as a sacrifice but as a choice (and I remind myself of that choice when things get really hectic).  Getting to be a mom and an artist is a great adventure, and I would never choose another path.

-Jennifer L. Hoffman
  Behind the Brushes, October 2016
  www.triofineart.com