Lady in White 1901

This is Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s “Lady in White," painted with oil on canvas. Just imagine him in his studio, working and reworking this image. Dewing seems to be searching for the right balance of light and shadow. The brushwork is soft and kind of dreamy. The paint is applied thinly, creating layers of translucent color and a delicate, almost ephemeral quality. It’s like a whisper of a painting rather than a shout. The woman’s dress is pure white, but it’s not really white - is it? Look closer and you can see the touches of cream, gray, and even a little blue. See how those little shifts make the whole thing vibrate? You can almost feel the fabric and the weight of the folds. Dewing really lets the details emerge slowly, building the figure from a series of subtle observations. All those nearly-nothings turn into a something. Painters are always in conversation with one another, picking up on ideas and techniques, passing them along. Dewing was clearly looking at Whistler, at the way he used color and form to create mood and atmosphere. And who knows, maybe someone will look at Dewing’s work one day and find something new to say, too.