Monterey 1899

Thomas Wilmer Dewing painted "Monterey" with oils, and while the precise date remains unknown, it encapsulates a turn-of-the-century sensibility. Dewing was associated with the American Renaissance, a movement that sought to elevate American art and culture through academic training and a focus on beauty. His paintings, like this one, often feature elegant women in subdued settings. The aesthetic movement sought to extract art from its traditional academic settings. The influence of the Arts and Crafts movement can be seen in the flowing gown, whose texture invites the viewers to imagine the textures of the natural world. Dewing's work reflects the tastes of a particular social class, the prosperous bourgeoisie, who sought images of refinement and gentility. These paintings offered them respite from an increasingly industrialized and urbanized world. To understand this better, we can turn to archival sources, exhibition records, and period publications, to appreciate how cultural values shape what we consider art.