Woman in Blue 1920

Thomas Wilmer Dewing created this painting, Woman in Blue, in the United States during the late 19th or early 20th century. The woman’s blue dress and the painting’s soft focus connect it to the Aesthetic Movement. Dewing was concerned with ideas of taste and beauty that were prevalent at the time. The Aesthetic Movement was part of the wider European interest in how art could shape culture and society, and how institutions might promote this. This movement often looked back to pre-industrial forms of making, imagining a society that was more attentive to beauty. Dewing was committed to the idea of a painting expressing ‘one elevated thought’. Here, that thought might be understood as the elegant poise of the figure. To understand the painting and its context better, we can study how the Aesthetic Movement played out in America. We might look at exhibition reviews and other contemporary writings. Art is always tied to particular social and institutional circumstances.