Beginnings
Most if not all art styles come from cultural transference, one of the great unifying aspects of art. The lion’s share of Western art comes from Europe, and a good portion of that is from France. The French Barbizon School of painting is one of the major influences for Tonalism.
The Barbizon School was created while Romanticism was the dominant style in 1830 and with French artists having Romanticism imposed on them through the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In a refusal of the Romantic movement, the artists of the Barbizon School attempted to escape the confines of the Academy to paint en plein air, which is to paint outdoors. What they chose to paint was the landscape of the French North Central, the Forest of Fontainebleau, and the people in the border town of the forest, Barbizon.
This movement towards a raw realist depiction of landscape and people later inspired American artists like William Morris Hunt, who brought the style formally to the United States, and later George Inness, who was also influenced by the Hudson River School of American landscape painting. The Hudson River School of painting is widely considered to be another major influence on Tonalism. Having roots in the natural realism of the Barbizon School and the vivid and dramatic landscapes of the Hudson River School, Tonalism eventually matured into its own distinctive style.
La Vie en Noir
What’s the difference between Tonalism and other similar painting styles, such as the landscape paintings of the Hudson River School or portraits like that of John Singer Sargent? The best way to convey the distinction of Tonalism apart from other relatives is to turn to another art medium, film. I believe there is no better direct comparison as to that of film noir. In one of my favorite commentaries that sheds light on what distinguishes film noir from other genres or styles of cinema, filmmaker Paul Schrader states in his 1972 essay Notes on Film Noir:
The subjects that Tonalist paintings capture vary from cowboys to Native Americans, serene wilderness to dense cities, the lively company of friends to the loneliness of a stranger walking, and so on. Many of these subjects have been painted time and again, but like film noir the style of Tonalism finds its aesthetic value in the tone and mood evoked from such scenes.
Tone and Mood
The development of the above-stated “tone and mood” leads to the dreamlike beauty showcased in the works by Tonalists who stand above all others within the brief movement. I want to look into the works of George Inness, Thomas Dewing, Frederic Remington, L. Birge Harrison, and the preeminent master of Tonalism, James McNeill Whistler. I believe always that the best way to learn an art style is to view it and surrender your emotions to it, to let it take your attention and teach you what is within it.
Tonalist Painters You Should Know
1. George Inness (1825–1894)
George Inness is the most direct bridge I have seen between Tonalism and the art movements it took influence from. While dedicating his efforts to landscapes, like those of Barbizon and Hudson River School, he insulates his canvases with mist, restricts the color palette to more muted brown, gold, and green tones, and has darker shadows that obscure the clarity of the scene. His depictions of sunrises hold a warmth, and his sunsets elicit a dreariness as our world of light lays into night. Pastoral scenes are lazy, and there is a calmness within his meadows and many of them hold a feeling of mystery. George Inness is a great introduction to the emotional difference Tonalism brings, using the very familiar subject of landscapes.
2. L. Birge Harrison (1854–1929)
In Lovell Birge Harrison’s paintings, we see a landscape different from the mountains, fields, and forests that pervade much of the Tonalist works. The paintings from Birge Harrison that strike me the most are those with houses and more urban settings. His pairing of the moody atmosphere of Tonalism with the structures we build, live in, and work in produces a calm weight to the busy world, like a moment of pause to breathe between the fast-paced modern life.
3. Thomas Dewing (1851–1938)
To me, Thomas Dewing paints the tone of dreams. Wispy natural settings and hazy rooms give us glimpses into locales we can’t place and yet are deeply familiar, like faded memories. But the landscapes and interiors are not the focus of Dewing’s paintings. In these works, backdrops melt into pastel pools that are waded and frolicked through by the women who inhabit them.
4. Frederic Remington (1861–1909)
We take our view of Tonalism from the Eastern United States and plant it firmly in the beautiful, rustic West in the paintings of Frederic Sackrider Remington. Remington came from a prominent New York family that had roots dating back to early settlers from the late 17th century. The United States was an integral part of his identity. His father served in the American Civil War and his cousin was the founder of the weapons manufacturer Remington Firearms. He was drawn to the West at a young age and would spend time living out in the climates he would paint.
His paintings add such a narrative strength to the Tonalist oeuvre. The moods he establishes are stark and sometimes romantically haunting, perfectly capturing the excitement and mystery of the rugged lifestyle of the American West, of man against unrelenting nature.
5. James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
To further accentuate the tonal harmony of his paintings, James McNeill Whistler fused musical language to describe his works—nocturnes, symphonies, arrangements, compositions, etc. In order to bring the focus of the audience to that tonal unity, he would use the terms composers used when they were describing the abstract qualities of music—like Romantic nocturnes that seemed to reflect the atmosphere of night.
I consider Whistler the chief artist of Tonalism, the culmination of all the techniques displayed by the previous artists. From the fledgling roots of using landscapes—both rural and cosmopolitan—blending realism with dreamlike abstraction, to creating a single beautiful harmony of tone and mood. His works display the zenith of what Tonalism grew to become as an individuated style, which captured the attention of not only the United States but well into Europe. Whistler made an artistic home for himself in the United Kingdom, spreading the influence of his chosen style.
Tonalism was a perfect pairing because Whistler believed in “art for art’s sake,” meaning the power of aesthetics alone weighed more in value than any symbolic meaning engrained within their paintings, like that of the Romantics. What he depicts is beauty laid bare; what we see is all that there is to see.
Our lives are soaked through with the moods that we feel. Moods are abstract and intangible, but within the paintings of Tonalism, they are assigned physical quality through differing tones of a dominant color. The many subjects depicted in Tonalism exist within a greater emotional atmosphere. Tonalism is one of the most accessible painting styles because it serves emotion. These artists depict our world and unify it with tone and mood, and all we are to do is look and let ourselves feel.
