Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s. The movement was eventually eclipsed by Impressionism and European modernism.
French origins The French Barbizon school artists emphasized mood and shadow. The movement was eventually eclipsed by Impressionism and European modernism.Avery, Kevin J. & Fischer, Diane P. "American Tonalism: Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Montclair Art Museum ". Burlington Magazine, Vol. 142, No. 1168, July, 2000. p. 453.
America American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style.
During the late 1890s, American art critics began to use the term "tonal" to describe these works, as well as the lesser-known synonyms Quietism and Intimism. Two of the leading associated painters were George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.
Australia Australian tonalism emerged as an art movement in Melbourne during the 1910s when it was promoted as a method of 'scientific' realist painting by Max Meldrum through his art school.
Britain St Ives artists were the leading exponents of this style in British landscape painting.
Canada In Canada the movement emerged in the 1890s through the influence of the American, Whistler.
Artists
Willis Seaver Adams George Ames Aldrich Joseph Allworthy Edward Mitchell Bannister Clarice Beckett Ralph Albert Blakelock Emanuele Cavalli Jean-Charles Cazin Colin Colahan Paul Cornoyer Bruce Crane Leon Dabo Elliott Daingerfield Angel De Cora Charles Melville Dewey Thomas Dewing Charles Warren Eaton Henry Farrer Edith Loring Getchell Percy Gray L. Birge Harrison Arthur Hoeber George Inness William Keith Percy Leason Xavier Martinez Arthur Frank Mathews Max Meldrum Robert Crannell Minor John Francis Murphy Frank Nuderscher Fausto Pirandello Henry Ward Ranger Granville Redmond Albert Pinkham Ryder William Sartain Edward Steichen Dwight William Tryon Jules Turcas John Twachtman Clark Greenwood Voorhees J. Alden Weir James McNeill Whistler Alexander Helwig Wyant Raymond Dabb Yelland
Gallery
See also California Tonalism List of paintings by James McNeill Whistler
Notes
External links American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fully digitized 3 volume exhibition catalog American Tonalism - Montclair Art Museum